Raerek de Lionei
by SparkLuxLucios
Summary: "The gods are fickle beings.' That was the first thing I learned from the pride. The blessing of one is the ire of another, any slight can turn the world's most powerful beings against you. Yet we still persevere under hardship, still strive for our goals, and that is what makes us powerful, not skill with a sword. What is my goal to make me so powerful? Personal."-Raerek de Lionei
1. Beginnings

Raerek de Lionei

Chapter 1: Beginnings

**AN: Hello everyone! I'm sorry for not updating my other fics, but this idea has been stuck in my head for a long time, and I've had a little bit of a writer's block. Anyway, this'll be my pet project for a while, and all of my other fics will probably be on temporary hiatus for the time being. Sorry!**

**Anyway, with this fic. This is gonna take place in a sort of Final-Fantasy esque world in Greek mythology with elements of several titles that I think fit well with this theme. To clear it up, so far I've decided on White Knight Chronicles I/II, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Hunted: The Demon's Forge and Dragon's Dogma for monsters, spells, weapons and territories.**

**Final note, if you like the story and want to submit an OC, PM me, I'll have a list of available gods on my profile. If you want to reuse a god, you're character will probably end up a minor character. Also, if you want your character to have a specific role in the story, then let me know or I'll just put him/her where I think he/she fits. Also remember, this is a medieval, sexist, racist world, so make your character accordingly. If he/she is too unrealistic, your character won't be accepted, but I'll probably give you tips in case you want to try again. Another thing that I would recommend is to wait for chapter two to be posted. It will explain the different countries and their unique qualities. However, I won't be introducing OCs en masse until after chapter 3-4, so be warned.**

**Special notes to a specific person (you know who you are ;D): Lol, I actually had the horse part typed up before you submitted **_**him**_**. I literally laughed when I realized how perfect this was coming together, especially now that I have his outline and my own completed! BTW, I rechecked and I broke 7,000! XD**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC.**

- - -Mount Olympus

"ENOUGH!" Zeus shouted as he attempted to quell the other Olympians, "Cease this senseless arguing at once!"

Gradually, the chatter died down and Zeus prepared for the council to start.

He had always hated these, especially the council on the winter eclipse.

There were so many better things that he could be doing, he could be out with some mortal women, or watching a beach volleyball game, but no. He just had to preside over the gods, didn't he? Couldn't leave the job to his older brother, could he?

"Dammit." Zeus muttered quietly to himself.

"Now, as you all know, there has been an imbalance in the forces of nature. A mortal has obtained the power of a god." Zeus addressed the council.

"WHAT?!" Hades yelled, "What mortal would dare interfere with the gods?"

"How could he have gotten this power?" Hermes questioned, "It's not like he could've actually come to Olympus and taken a god's power."

"Correct." Zeus replied, "Neither me nor my daughter have been able to see how a mortal could have achieved this false godhood. But, he must be killed for his insolence, that much is certain." Zeus growled at the end.

"Which god's power was stolen?" questioned Artemis as the others murmured, curios.

"It was Leviathan." Athena replied, but Poseidon then nearly leapt up from his chair.

"Then bring him here! As a minor god of the sea, he is now under my jurisdiction!" Poseidon demanded to his brother, Zeus.

"That cannot be done, Earth shaker. And you know why." Zeus quickly said when he saw his brother's mouth open to protest.

"Then it has come to this?" Hades questioned his brothers, "Very well."

"It is decided." Zeus said, silencing any arguments.

"The boy will die." Zeus stated and then looked through the floor of the chamber, now showing a man with a large sword on his back, bearing strange symbols, one of them being an owl.

- - -Forests of Fylloma

The man that the gods were watching was indeed a warrior, or at least a mercenary with a strong build.

He stood at 6' even, a giant among the current men of that time, and was very muscular. If one were to ask him, he'd say that he weighed about 168lb.

He had forest green hair which cascaded down to the base of his neck in long spikes, looking almost like a mullet if not for the few stray strands that hung down in front of his face and covered his temples. His complexion was tan, more a natural tan than from being outside, and deep blue eyes, the color of the ocean.

He was currently wearing a baggy white peasant's shirt with a slit down the front, held somewhat together by black string. Over this, though, he wears the complete contrast of a royal blue tunic with golden embroidery and a split shirttail in the back that goes down to his knees. He also wore a small royal blue cape over his right shoulder. On his lower body he wears a pair of baggy white pants and dark leather boots.

The most impressive thing about this man wasn't his dress though, nor his height or physique. No, it was the sword he carried on his back.

The sword was huge, almost as big as the man himself, but he carried it like it was nothing. The total length of the sword measured at 5 feet, but the blade itself was 4 feet long and 5 ½ inches wide. The handle was 1 foot long and two inches wide, with the hand guard measuring at 8 inches by 1 inch.

The blade was massive, but that's not to say that it wasn't beautiful. It had a leather wrapped hilt and a golden hand guard, finished with a polished steel blade with a golden plate going down the middle of the blade. On the base of the golden plate on the blade is a picture on an owl, with the symbols for Alpha then Omega as you went down the blade.

The man was simply walking through the forest with traveling supplies strapped to the large brown horse next to him, leaving the man with his hands free to look at his map, which he was currently doing.

"Hmph." He grunted, "Figures this town had to be in a part of the forest that I've rarely visited before."

He kept on walking, deftly avoiding running into trees and other creature, most of the threatening ones scared off by the aura that he exuded.

Most of them.

The man had to duck quickly, lest his head be taken off by the large hellhound that had attacked him.

"You're not native to this area. What purpose do you have here?" The man grunted as he threw the hellhound into a nearby tree before drawing his sword.

"Can't talk?" He questioned mockingly, "Oh well, no harm in trying." He sighed as he bisected the hound the next time it lunged at him.

"Too bad, I was hoping for a challenge." He said as he started to walk away.

Just before he sheathed his sword though, about a dozen more appeared in between the trees.

"Great." He muttered to himself before stabbing his blade and crying into the air "Athena guide me!"

From that point the fight was a massacre.

The man hacked, slashed and stabbed his way through the hellhounds with such skill. He went after the one closest to him in the circular clearing and immediately impaled it's back on his sword.

He wasn't done, however, as he then swung his blade around, decapitating one more and launching the dead body at another with such force that the creature was crushed.

He then looked at his situation. There were nine hellhounds left, and he was surrounded.

He smirked, "Time to get in my daily exercises."

The hellhounds moved first, moving in such a way that he couldn't hit one without exposing himself to another.

'_Hmmm. Well, they _are_ wolves.'_ The man thought as he recognized the pattern.

They were all coming at him from different angles, trying to catch him off guard. Not to mention that if he went after one, that would leave him completely open to the ones behind him, and possibly the ones to the side.

Unfortunately for them, he knew a way to deal with this.

He hefted his huge blade over his right shoulder with both hand and crouched while charging magical energy.

Just before leaping into the air he said one thing, "Watch my Void Crash."

With those words his stabbed his blade into the ground as he came down, the kinetic force as well as the magical energy that he had been storing in the blade was all released at once, resulting in a huge shockwave that vaporized the hellhounds on contact because they were so close to the epicenter.

"Well, that works." He grunted as he sheathed his blade again, panting slightly from the drain of the Void Crash.

He hadn't noticed it while he was battling, but the sun was starting to set. He checked his map again.

"I'm not too far, but I won't be there before nightfall. Meh, I'll set up camp. I always did like the forest better anyway." He said to himself as he tied his horse to a tree and began to set up his tent and arrange stones so that he could build a fire.

After he sparked a fire it was starting to get dark and the man was starting to get hungry. He noticed out of the corners of his eyes the three hellhounds that hadn't been disintegrated.

One was beheaded, he could eat that one, another was skewered, he might be able to eat that one. The last one, however, was crushed almost beyond recognition under the force which it had been crushed.

"Well, I can still skin them all for furs, they sell for quite a bit. And I might be able to make some alchemical use of the eyes, teeth and claws." Nodding to himself, he set about harvesting whatever he could from the hellhounds, skinning the two that were fit to eat and cooking them over his fire.

The man was just about to sit and enjoy his meal in peace when he heard a loud whooshing noise from above.

Faster than the man could react, a flock of ravens swooped down and carried off his meat before flying into the forest.

The man, enraged at losing his dinner, quickly picked up his sword and canteen and set off after the birds.

He chased them for just several minutes when, all of a sudden, they dropped his meat down into a pile of leaves.

Unsatisfied with simple victory, the man attempted to pursue the ravens, but he almost tripped over something. Or someone.

"What would a boy be doing out this far into the forest?" He wondered to himself before picking up the body with one arm and his meat with the other, forgetting about the birds.

"Regardless, he appears to need medical attention. Thank Apollo that I have some knowledge of medicines." He sighed to himself, _'Why do I have to be so nice?'_ he questioned himself.

'_And modest, and handsome, and-'_ The man cut off that train of though. Athena would have his head if he continued on like that.

By that time he had reached his camp and proceeded to place the boy in his own bed.

"Looks like I'm roughin it tonight, eh Ischyro?" the man spoke to his horse, now known as Ischyro.

The horse gave no visible response to hearing him.

"Well, I should probably check the wounds on that kid, right?" The man said as he got up and moved to the tent.

He knew the wounds looked severe, if the slash/burn marks on the boy's armor were anything to be certain of.

It was then he took a closer look at the boy.

He was dressed in regular military archer's armor, a white tunic embroidered with gold and a grey vest over it with the royal insignia, leather boots and gloves, a pair of baggy grey pants and a standard white archer's helm. He appeared to be about eighteen and about 5'5", a bit short, but he could definitely have been a city guard.

The boy appeared strangely thin for a boy, and possibly a little feminine, but that's probably why he was an archer instead of a fighter.

The man scoffed. If you can't hold your own in single combat, then what business did you have protecting others.

It was obvious that the boy had lost, badly if his condition was anything to go by.

His black hair was slightly singed and had dried blood crusting over on his forehead. His strangely, for a guy, peachy colored skin was marked with bruises and cuts. He appeared to have two sets of scars over his body, three slash marks on his arm, and a long scar from his left cheek to his ear.

The man's eyes then widened as he noticed a chest wound that he hadn't noticed before.

'_That's a very sever wound. It has to be treated immediately!'_ were his thoughts as he immediately reached for his medical supplies.

He was about to tear open the boy's shirt when he felt something through it.

'_It's already been wrapped?'_ The man thought, confused, as he felt the bandages under the boy's shirt, _'Why would someone bother to treat his wounds then leave him out here to die?'_

He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't notice a single golden yellow eye open, and he didn't notice the boy's body freeze when he checked the bandages again.

"Hmm. The wound seems to be over the right lung. I should check for any form of tear in the bandage." The man muttered to himself as his hands drifted toward the boy's chest.

The boy felt himself freeze again. There was nothing that he could do without revealing himself to be awake, or revealing his other secret.

'_Dammit!'_ the boy thought angrily, but soon started blushing uncontrollably as the man's hands reached his chest and started searching, almost like a massage.

Unwillingly, the boy uttered a small moan, and attracted the attention of the man who was checking him for wounds.

"Good, you're awake." Was all the man said before helping the boy to sit up.

"Now, I need to check your chest wound more thoroughly, so I'll need you to remove your armor and shirt." He said quietly, obviously trying not to scare the boy.

"Umm…" was all the boy said, but the man interpreted it as that he couldn't get his shirt off by himself.

"It's okay, I'll help." The man said and began to take off the boy's shirt.

The boy once again froze so the man, trying to start a conversation, asked "Hey, kid, what's your name?"

The boy immediately responded, "Aria-" but cut himself off, "Aaron." Was all he said before going silent once again.

The man continued his work in silence until the only thing on Aaron's chest was the bandages, literally around his chest.

"Now, I'll need to remove the bandages to check the wound." The man said.

"Wait!" Aaron exclaimed, seemingly panicked, "I can do it!"

"No," the man sternly replied, "You can't treat a wound this severe by yourself."

"Wait-" the Aaron tried again and covered his chest with both of his arms and turned away.

"Enough!" the man got frustrated and pinned the boy down with one hand and undid the bandages with the other.

The moment the bandages came undone, the man's eyes widened and Aaron looked away, blushing in shame.

"You-You're a girl?" The man questioned disbelievingly.

Aaron seemed content to simply glare at him.

In his shock, the man released the girl, who proceeded to put her clothes back on.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" the girl retorted sarcastically, her voice higher pitched than it had been before.

"Your breasts." Was all the man said, clearly not getting the sarcasm.

The girl blushed heavily and glared at the man more for being reminded that he had practically freely groped her for the past few minutes.

"What's your real name?" the man questioned, eyes narrowed.

"I see no reason to tell y-" the girl was once again cut off by the giant sword stuck in her face.

"Let me go first," the man said, "my name is Raerek de Lionei. Now, what. Is. Your. Name. Girl." He growled out at the end.

"A-Arianne." The girl squeaked out, a little freaked out by the sight of such a huge sword, "Arianne Seatos." She got a little more confident at the end.

"So, you're her." The newly named Raerek mumbled to himself.

"You know," he started, getting her attention, "I was actually paid to come here and kill you."

Arianne's eyes widened when she heard that and she started backpedaling away from him, only to trip and end up with her back against a tree.

'_Did I really survive all of that just to be killed by a bounty hunter? Ladon attacking wasn't even my fault!'_ she cried in outrage inside of her head when she heard Raerek laughing to himself and sheathing his sword.

"Come on, girl. Did you really think that any self-respecting mercenary would kill an injured woman in cold blood." He smirked at her reaction.

"You-you, you, you, YOU!" was all she shouted as she ran up to him and punched him in the gut as hard as she could.

"Owww!"

"I wouldn't recommend trying that again." Raerek said as he looked mirthfully at the girl shaking her probably numb fist.

She just glared at him again.

All of a sudden, Arianne swayed on her feet and almost fell over if Raerek had not caught her.

He carried her into the tent and set her down in the bed "Get some sleep. You'll need it to recover from those injuries." Was all he said before he left.

Arianne wanted to protest, to try and stay awake so that he couldn't do anything to her, but her body was too tired.

She was out within the minute.

Raerek chuckled as he remembered the girl's chest, "Quite the looker, eh Ischyro?" he looked over to his horse only to find it asleep.

Raerek chuckled to himself again as he got ready to sleep on the ground before he realized something.

"If Athena finds out about this, she's gonna kill me. Oh well, I doubt she'll ever find out." He muttered to himself with a groan.

- - -Mount Olympus

Athena twitched while all of the other gods laughed at her.

They had been watching the whole time.


	2. The City of Durshten

Raerek de Lionei

Chapter 2: The City of Durshten

**AN: First thing's first. NO! Actions and remarks in this story do not represent my actual views on things. However, for things like sexism, that was a tried and true theme of the time, so I WILL have it in my story! That doesn't mean that I'm sexist, it's just how I think the people in that time period would act in a given situation. Also, I'll present a poll at the end of this chapter for where you want Raerek to go next. Specifics at the bottom! Enjoy the story everyone, it's more t****han twice as long as chapter 1!**

_**Important update:**_** Hi! Just wanted to let you that I will only be uploading chapters for this story on the weekend! It will either be every weekend or every other weekend. Just to let you know and if I don't update within two weeks, PLZ BUG ME ABOUT IT! :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything in the story except for Raerek. He's mah slave thang ;D**

**Also, Arianne belongs to Archsage12, just so you all know.**

- - -Forest of Fylloma

The first thing that Arianne noticed was that she was not in the inn that she and her friend Aaron had been staying in in Durshten.

The second thing was that her chest felt a lot less constricted than it normally did.

After that second realization she immediately shot up and surveyed her surroundings, trying her best not to panic.

She instinctually reached out for her bow, she always kept it with her, and was surprised to find nothing but empty space.

Then she remembered, her bow had broken fighting against Ladon, but-

Apollo!

She remembered that he had given her a bow as a reward for her courage!

Concentrating, Arianne summoned the magical bow in a flash of light.

She smiled as she really looked at the bow for the first time.

It was a platinum colored bow, with blue magical veins appearing all over the weapon.

She picked it up and was surprised, it was light! Only about 20lbs, a lot lighter than her last one! Especially considering that the bow itself was about 140cm long.

Arianne was about to go outside and get some fresh air, but just before she pushed open the tent flap, the events of last night came back to her.

She frowned, remembering that man's supposed 'mission'.

If her really was supposed to kill her, why hadn't he done so while she was asleep, why had he even rescued her in the first place?

Too many questions and too little answers, Arianne sighed.

'_Well, looks like I'll just have to get information from the source._' She thought dejectedly, she really didn't want to see, much less talk to, the smug bastard who had not only groped her yesterday, but also knew her secret.

'_Now or never.'_ She tried to rally her thoughts as she went outside, only to be greeted by one of the strangest sights she had ever seen.

Now, what was this scene that she stumbled onto? Well Raerek, having expected to reach the city of Durshten by the end of the day yesterday, had packed accordingly.

However, he was slowed by multiple factors throughout his travel, and thus did not make it to the city yesterday and ran out of supplies, which is why he had to eat hellhound yesterday.

But, this also applied to hygiene. At his age, men tend to grow beards very quickly but, it's very hard to get them to the exact thickness and length that you wanted it. This corundum had led to the invention of several types of blunt knives to be used just for the purpose of shaving.

However, Raerek's were very cheap, one time use only, and he had used his last one several days ago, meaning that it was time to shave again, but Raerek had nothing to shave with.

This led to the awkward scene of Raerek trying to shave his beard with his sword. Which was nearly as big as himself.

"What…the FUCK are you doing!" Arianne shouted at him after regaining her motor functions.

"Well, I expected to reach Durshten yesterday and be able to pick up some shaving knives there, but because of SOMEONE I had to camp out here tonight." Raerek replied in a gruff voice, slightly embarrassed at being caught in such an awkward position.

Arianne looked away, slightly ashamed that she had been caught in such a vulnerable position and probably would have died if not for Raerek.

That man infuriated her to no end!

Raerek looked at her closely when he noticed the bow in her hands before motioning for her to take a seat near him "Let's play a game."

Arianne narrowed her eyes, but accepted the seat anyway "What kind of game?" she questioned him.

"The Question Game, of course." He replied with a small smirk, "For each question you ask about me, I get to ask one about you, and we both have to answer truthfully. After all, what better way to build trust." He finished with a strained smile.

She frowned, he was obviously trying to get information from her, but what better way to get information from him?

After all, it wasn't as if she couldn't just lie whenever he asked a too personal question.

"Alright, I'll play," She crossed her arms over her chest, "but I go first."

"Fine with me." He said as he leaned back, his hands on the ground behind him.

"If you were paid to kill me, why didn't you?" Arianne asked the first thing that came into her mind.

"That's an easy one. I already told you, what self-respecting mercenary would kill a wounded, unarmed woman?" Raerek laughed as he sat up, "My turn."

Arianne waited patiently while he thought up a good question.

"How did you get so injured?" It was a simple question, but it held so much grief for her, she almost told him no.

But, she wasn't accepted into one of the most prestigious knight's academies in Oraia just for her combat ability.

"I ran into some hellhounds in the woods." She said, trying to explain the burn marks on her armor as well as her wounds. Hellhounds would be an acceptable enemy, after all, that's what they'd eaten last night.

"And I suppose that that had nothing to do with why you were wanted dead in the town of Durshten, right?" Raerek shot back and saw her clearly wince.

That's why he'd been hired. He already knew the story, word on the attack by Ladon on Durshten had spread like wildfire, leading the citizens to want to get the mess cleaned up as quickly as possible.

After all, the country of Petra could easily take advantage of their current predicament with a monster attacking one Fylloma's capital cities.

He'd been the closest and most skilled sell-sword available, so the people of Durshten hired him to get rid of 'the traitorous guard who'd brought the demon to the city'.

All he'd been told is that the guard's family name was Seatos and that he was a city guard who had collaborated with Echidna to destroy Durshten.

"So you know, do you?" the girl questioned him bitterly, "That I was chased out of that city for supposedly bringing Ladon, Echidna's pet Hydra, to destroy it." She turned away in shame "It wasn't even my fault."

"Yes, I know." Raerek said gruffly, answering her question, "But I want to hear what you have to say in your defense." He may be a heartless mercenary, but that didn't mean that he didn't have a sense of personal justice.

"Well, I was coming home from the National Fylloma Knights Training Academy, the NFKTA, to visit my home town. I was born in Durshten, but ran away from home to become a knight. See, I'd disguised myself as a boy to take part in the yearly competitions held there and must have impressed the Lord Farson with my skills, as I soon received a letter of acceptance into the Academy. Me and my friend, Aaron, were the only ones of the tried that were accepted that year, so I felt that I had to go, whether or not I had to disguise myself as a boy. Naturally, both my mother and father disapproved, my mother because it was unladylike and my father because he was a retired captain of the guard of Durshten, so he'd seen what soldiers were expected to do on the battlefield. They were both looking out for me, I just couldn't see it at the time but I reluctantly accepted their judgment. However, the night that the entourage was set to leave, an assassin from Petra had snuck into the city and attempted to force my father to give him military secrets of the city by holding my mother hostage. I managed to sneak up on and kill the assassin, but not before he fatally wounded my mother. The last thing she gave me was this pendant." She pulled out a golden pendant.

It was of beautiful design, a small golden bow and arrow tied on a long piece of string. Judging by the string's length, it must have gone down to almost her bellybutton.

"It's beautiful." Raerek said, still in the same gruff voice that he always used.

"My mother had it in her hands when she died, with a note." Raerek would have inquired as to what the note said, but the girl looked like she was about to break down and if she broke down then he would lose his source of information.

He gave her a moment to collect herself. It was a surprisingly short time for anyone, much less a woman.

"A-after that." She took another second to steady her voice whilst Raerek waited quietly, arms folded over his chest. "After that I took some money and clothes and a sword and left to hopefully catch up with the entourage. I found Aaron and told him what happened, and he took care of me until we made it to the academy. We went there for years and finally graduated, even though it was getting harder and harder to keep my gender a secret. Before our first shift we were given a break to prepare ourselves, so me and Aaron decided to go back home to visit before we set off across the country. That's when Echidna decided to attack." She scowled deeply and clenched her fists before continuing.

"She sent one of her _pets_" she spat the word with as much venom as she could muster, "Ladon, to attack Durshten because she hated that I, the woman archer, had made it in to and graduated from the NFKTA, so naturally she wanted me to suffer and die. Ladon got there before we did and immediately started attacking me when it saw me. Of course, I kept on dodging, but that just convinced people that I was working with it because of the collateral damage that we caused. Meanwhile, Aaron went to help people evacuate to safety and to find my father. I haven't seen him since." She looked upset at that, as if she had been expecting him to come back just for her, "I managed to kill Ladon, but I was chased out of the city because of the damage that had been done. Then you found me." She glared at him in remembrance of their first encounter.

Raerek scoffed, "I didn't ask for your life story, just what happened at the battle." Arianne scowled at him again.

'_How can he be so insensitive?!' _she questioned herself. Even herself, as sociopathic as she was, would feel slightly bad for someone if they spilled their guts to you like that.

"And I still get the feeling that you left something out, but I don't think that it would be important enough for you to risk your life. Is it?" he asked forcefully while reaching for his sword.

She shook her head quickly, "What about you? What's your story?" Arianne might not have liked him much, but it was good to get information whenever one could. That had been one of her first lessons in tactics.

Raerek laughed, "Me? I was born in the forest and raised by lions! Decided to leave the forest once I got big enough and decided to kill a Chimera that tried to stop me." That stopped Arianne in her tracks, it was difficult for even a squad of trained guards to take down a Chimera. Just how strong was this guy?

"Of course," Raerek continued, quite unaware of Arianne's inner debate, "I didn't get my sword till soon after I killed the damn thing! Would a made thing a hell of a lot easier!" He seemed to be laughing at her disbelief and fear.

"That's no answer!" She yelled at him before she could control herself, "I get another question!"

"Fine, fine." Raerek waved her off, "Go ahead."

Arianne bent over a little as she thought. _'Well, better to go with some form of useful information.'_ She decided to herself before looking at him.

'_I wonder what she'll ask me next?'_ Raerek wondered as he scratched his clean shaven chin _'Hmph, I hope it's better than her last one, it was almost insulting to think that she could get any advantages over me by knowing my past.'_ He almost chuckled to himself. Almost.

"Where do you plan on going next?" she asked him slowly, as if trying to gauge his reactions.

Raerek had to admit, he was slightly surprised by this girl's intelligence to ask such a resourceful question.

"Well, it'll be easier if I show you on the map." He said, motioning her to a space on the other side of a relatively flat patch of grass.

He took a second of contemplation about what he was going to do before he shrugged to himself _'It's not like she has a choice in the matter of where we go.'_ He thought to himself as he unfurled the map.

Unlike the small map that he had before, this was a map of the entire continent of Oraia.

"Now, I'm sure that you already know this, but just so that I'm sure you know everything." He said gesturing to the map, "This entire island continent is called Oraia and is divided into several countries." Arianne looked at the map and almost tuned out what Raerek was saying, it wasn't like she hadn't heard it before.

Raerek almost smacked the girl when he saw that she wasn't paying attention, but he supposed he could let it slide this once. After all, no one liked looking at the same crescent shaped island for extended periods of time.

Oraia and its sister island Gaea, were shaped identically, both being crescent shaped islands opening up to the ocean in the north, with a small island between the two ends of the island continent.

It only helped slightly that both had extremely varied territory.

On the far left of the island, where he was, there was a great forest that covered most of the far left third of the island, leaving only a small distance from the sea that was clear of woodland. Not counting larger cities, of course. This was the country of Fylloma, one of the two powers on this continent, simply because of its massive size.

Right next to Fylloma, going counter clockwise, was Petra. It was a small country compared to Fylloma, maybe about a half the size of the powerhouse, but still large, going from the borders of the forest to just a few dozen miles short of the desert. Its entire territory was covered in great plains of stone and fissures and crags, with large mines and some mountains to the far right of its territory.. Even though the area was desolate, life still managed to survive there, both sentient and otherwise. If you were willing to brave the trip, though, rumor had it that the largest trench there, the Trench of Petras, the first king of Petra, was one of the most beautiful sights in the known world in the dim light of dawn.

To the right of Petra was the great country of Ammodis. In between the countries of Petra and Ammodis used to be another country, but the name was lost when, two wars ago, the land was conquered and split between Petra and Ammodis. Ammodis picked up where Petra left off and kept going until the large mountain ranges that cut off Ammodis from the final country. The country was mostly covered with a large, hot desert, the only exception being the occasional large oasis or the area of stone near the border with Petra. Ammodis and Petra were about the same size overall, both having benefitted from annexing the stone territory, but Ammodis was still a stronger military power, even if Petra had a wealth of artifacts and ruins.

The last country on the continent, being only a little smaller than Fylloma, went from the mountain ranges until the ocean claimed the land. This country was Iofous, and was covered in wide open grasslands and plains, with mountains separating Iofous from Ammodis, but that was no problem for Iofous. They had adapted to their natural defenses during the previous wars and had developed some flying machines to easily cross the mountains. Other than their air superiority, it should be noted that it was the other power in the continent of Oraia and had a bitter rivalry with Fylloma. While the Fyllomians had ground combat superiority, the Iofousians had air superiority. Victory usually came to the country that had better trained their marine combat force. Either way, both countries had ample training with the wealth of monsters lurking in both regions.

There was one final spec of land, though, was an island between the tips of Fylloma and Iofous. This was the island of Iiomeno, barely more than a third the size of Petra and the smallest country of the continent. It wasn't even a country at first, just another island, until it proved its marine superiority in the first continent wide war, trouncing every other country in aquatic might despite the small size of their army. Another plus was that the monsters here were especially strong and of great variability, offering the best training grounds out of all the countries, not to mention that, because of the harsh conditions on the island, people born there were naturally stronger. The other countries were puzzled at how, even with such a small island, they could amass a decent army. The answer became clear during the second war, the first war where prisoners were taken, and it was found out that Iiomeno allowed able bodied women to join the army if they were unmarried and had no children.

"Hey! Wake up!" Arianne shouted at Raerek, disrupting his thoughts, "So are you gonna tell me where you're going next or what?" She glared at him.

"Right." Raerek said slowly, still unused to any form of traveling companion. "We're here" he pointed on the map to a spot not too far from a large clearing in the forest that connected with the clearing near the ocean about halfway up the country, "So we'll go here to stock up on supplies and rest." He said pointing toward the large clearing that they were near, labeled Durshten.

"No way!" Arianne exclaimed as she looked at where he was pointing, "First of all, I'm a wanted criminal there, second, what's with all this 'we' stuff?" she looked at him, expecting a response for his supposed madness.

"To answer your first statement," Raerek replied smoothly, nonchalantly grabbing the hilt of his sword, "Brad Seatos, I believe that was your alias, is a wanted criminal in Durshten, not Arianne Seatos, the daughter who was kidnapped by the Petra spies that killed her mother." "But I wasn't-" Arianne tried to interject but was cut off again by Raerek, "Secondly, who said you had a choice of traveling with me?"

Almost faster that Arianne could react, Raerek's sword was in his hands and flying towards her, aimed to hit her head with the flat side.

She quickly dodged and attempted to run away. _'Well_', she thought as she was almost out of the clearing, _'not like I was planning to stick around anyway.'_ She thought with a smirk that turned into a surprise as Raerek appeared in front of her with his sword poised and ready to strike.

Her body reacted on instinct as she flipped over his blade and landed in a crouch before jumping back _'Was that a Haste spell?'_ she questioned herself disbelievingly.

"Time to take this up a notch." She muttered to herself as her smirk dropped and her stance became tenser, her muscles bunching together, ready for action and her eyes following her opponent's every move.

"So," Raerek said in his, still, annoyingly bored voice, "you've finally decided to take this seriously, have you? Good." Raerek nodded to himself as he prepared to fight.

"Athena guide me." He muttered to himself before leaping at his opponent.

Arianne looked up to the sky and seemed like she was going to say something, but whatever it was was cut off as Raerek appeared in front of her and smacked her across the clearing and into a tree, knocking her out cold and probably giving her a concussion, not that he cared at all.

He then started packing up his campsite and, after tying it all to his horse, he picked up Arianne and placed her on his horse, tying the reins around her hands so that she wouldn't fall off during the trip.

- - -The City of Durshten: City Gates

Finally, Raerek had reached the pure white walls that surrounded Durshten. Both wide as wide as two men and as tall as six, the walls were a truly impressive sight. Raerek would have enjoyed it more, had he not been so tired.

The journey had barely taken more than half an hour, but he still felt as if it had been longer.

During their short trip from the clearing where his campsite was to the city gates, they had to avoid all main roads, as the guards would definitely recognize the armor of Arianne as one of the trainees of the NFKTA that was in Durshten at the time of the attack. It wouldn't take them long after that to deduce who she was. It would only take any self-respecting guard seconds to recognize him.

After all, he was one of the most sought after mercenaries for the upcoming war that all the castle mages were predicting in every country. In skill with a blade, strength and endurance, knowledge and tactics, and it didn't hurt that he was rumored to have not just one, but two gods at his back and the might to fell a small army by himself. Of course, most of these were exaggerations, but here was some truth to them and that was all people needed to believe them.

Yeah, one could say that people were looking for him. A lot of people.

By the time they got to a safe point where Raerek would be able to travel on the road, it turns out that a clan of goblins had gotten brave today and decided to attack the main roads.

This was both fortunate and unfortunate for Raerek. Fortunate because, since this was a relatively untraveled road, there were few people around. Unfortunate for the same reason. It meant that guards would place less priority on this road, meaning that Raerek would have to take on 20+ goblins by himself.

Luckily, he had managed to keep all of the goblins away from Arianne and Ischyro, but he had taken a small sword wound in his side.

While not a debilitating injury, it was very noticeable, and would no doubt draw attention to him, attention that he didn't want or need.

His solution came in the form of a traveling merchant who he had happened to save from the goblins. As thanks, the man let him pick any one of his clothing items, and he happened to have a long, thick, nondescript leather robe that would offer more than enough concealment for what he needed it for.

Then came more trouble, who needed the cloak more, him, the sought after mercenary with a visible wound, or Arianne, the wanted girl who couldn't currently defend herself.

He had debated for several minutes before deciding that a sword wound from goblins was less conspicuous than traveling with a local felon.

He stopped for only a short minute in the forest to remove the girl's armor and get the robe on her before continuing, but this time on the main roads. He could not afford to receive any more injuries.

Luckily for him, the guards on the roads were not very attentive at the moments when he passed them.

By the time he reached the walls he had had to sneak past more than a dozen guards, and probably aged about fifty years.

He muttered a short prayer of thanks to Athena and grabbed Ischyro by the front of his reins, slowly guiding the horse toward the city gates.

"Halt! Present yourself for inspection, citizen!" one of the gate guards exclaimed as he and the other three aimed their spears at Raerek.

"I have nothing to hide." Raerek proclaimed boldly as he held his arms out to his sides, the guards eying his sword warily.

The guards inspected him for any hidden weapons and the like, but he was clean. It was when they moved onto Ischyro that there was a problem.

"We are going to have to inspect the one on the horse as well as the horse." The apparent leader of the group said as the rest of the group nodded.

"Very well, but I must inform you that she is unconscious. I found her in the forest at the sight of a goblin attack. I brought her here for medical attention." Raerek made small gestures with his arms during his explanation. This, combined with his small smile and relaxed posture put the guards at ease.

"All right." The lead guard said and the team proceeded to search the horse, only inspecting Arianne for any bulges that might have held hidden weapons.

"You may pass." The lead guard said as he wrote down all of their weapons and possessions in a large book by the gate tower while two of the lackeys started to open the gate.

"Welcome to Durshten, capital of Middle Fylloma." The last guard said as he moved aside to let Raerek and company pass into the city.

'_Incredible…'_ was the only thought going through Raerek's head as he looked around at the city in awe.

He had been expecting a grand city, but this was one of the most grand that he had ever seen.

The city was divided by walls separating, as far as he could tell, the different districts.

There appeared to be six in all.

Where Raerek had entered seemed to be the commercial district, with all of the city's most basic shops, traders, inns, taverns, basically anything that generated income. Unfortunately, this district was not the safest, as it had entrances to the slums scattered about, and some entrances to the sewers.

This was connected to a district on its left and center, but shared a wall with a separate district on it's right.

To the left of this district was the residential district. This was where the middle class families that could afford a home would live. This district also had entrances to the sewers and the slums throughout it. Yes, the wealth of this city was shown in benefits for its citizens, like the revolutionary use of water instead of chamber pots to answer 'nature's call'.

The person would go to the bathroom and then pull a lever and water would come in and wash down the gunk to the sewers, where it would be collected by low class workers and taken to a special room, prepared by the castle's mages, to be purified into clean water. Durshten was one of the six cities in the world to have such a great privilege available to both upper and middle class people.

The left district had gates on all sides, it had an entrance and gates connecting it to other districts on its right, leading to the commercial district, left and center.

Standing in the center of the city and connected to all of the districts save one, was the Central District. This district contained many of the great sights to see in this city, such as the temple, beautiful artwork, fountains and other majestic structures. It was also the area where the best shops in the city were set up. The best of blacksmiths, painters and other trades were stationed here, as well as the highest quality inns. This was mostly where the aristocrats shopped.

It was a very secure area, having very few entrances to the slums, resulting in very few beggars and thieves. It also had blocked off all entrances to the sewers, stopping both the odor and unsanitary creatures from climbing out of the sewer holes.

This district had connections in front, behind and to its left and right.

To this districts right was the high class residential area. This was where the rich lords and knights of the king would live in luxury. The area was filled with grand houses and beautiful artwork and even a few painters had grounded their business there, not to mention the inherently beautiful scenery, covered with small lakes and streams that shone beautifully in the sunlight. This was a district for only the wealthiest and most important of citizens in the city, so to even get in you had to pay a fee and subjugate yourself to a search for weapons. Not to mention that the guards posted here were the best of the best, second only to the king's guard. This part of the city had no entrances to the slums or the sewers, although there were secret passages that could lead all over the city. This was the second highest quality district in the city, topped only by the Castle District. This area had connections on its center and right.

To the right of the high class district, connected to the Central, Residential and Aristocrat districts was the Guard district. This district was where the city guards are trained and live. This area had the city's barracks, safe houses and evacuation routes. It also had the official blacksmith for the city guard. In short, this was the most military of all of the districts and was connected on all four sides to the left, Aristocrat, right, Residential, center, Central, and back, Castle district.

The final district of the city was the Castle district, where the king and his court and family live. The name for this district is obvious, as it only contains the castle and all of its grounds, including the gardens, towers, dungeon, etc. The only official way to enter this area was through the gate in the Guard district, but you could get in if you could fly. Not climbing the wall, though, as the walls were rubbed down to the point where you would slip off the moment you put your foot on it. There are rumors of secret passages in the dungeons and forgotten corners of the castle, but those are just rumors from the gossip-women in the city.

Raerek breathed deep as he took in the largest city that he had seen in a long time.

"Ahh" he sighed as he visibly relaxed while waking his horse through the Commercial district to find a decent inn.

"Now then," Raerek said to himself as he wandered the city for a while before finding the Central district, "Where did you live?"

He tied his horse at the stables near one of the inns and grabbed several pouches off of the horse, "Stay." Was all Raerek said before he left to go find a map maker.

It didn't take too long with all of the artists around, "Do you happen to have any maps of the city?" Raerek asked as politely as he could.

"Of course!" the thin artist said with a short laugh, "It's almost a requirement in a city as big as this!"

Raerek looked visibly relieved that he wasn't the only one who needed maps to traverse such huge cities.

"Thank you." Raerek said quietly as he reached into one of his pouches and dropped several silver and one gold coin into the hands of the map maker.

"Anytime." The man said and waved as Raerek walked away.

Raerek quickly found his way back to the hotel where he had tied his horse and, using his map, deduced that the inn was called the Megalo Louloudi Inn.

"Great Flower Inn? How poetic." Raerek muttered as he realized the name of the place and took Arianne off of Ischyro and grabbed off of his horse what he would need for his time at the inn.

He quickly gave the innkeeper some gold coins and proceeded to drop off his things at one of the rooms before dropping Arianne off on the bed. Fortunately, Raerek had the foresight to purchase a room that contained two beds, so that Arianne wouldn't have a chance to kill him in his sleep.

Yup, he really didn't want to chance sleeping with her right now, as there was a very high chance that he would be killed by the angry woman for knocking her out.

Raerek frowned, _'Didn't she say that she was born in Durshten?'_ he thought.

That got him pondering, maybe her father was still alive. Chances are, if he was still alive, that he would pay a big reward to whomever found and returned his daughter.

Not to mention that he was supposedly a former captain of the guard, so he was bound to be loaded. And in Aristocrat's district.

Raerek scowled, _'I hate dealing with nobles.'_ He thought bitterly as he resigned himself to the fact that he was probably going to have to deal with them a lot in this town if he wanted to get anything done.

With that pleasant train of thought, he grabbed his money, sword and miscellaneous pouches to keep with him when he stopped for a second.

'_They probably won't respond well to the wound and how dirty I am. I've been lucky so far, but I can't afford to keep pushing my luck.'_ Raerek thought. He had managed to avoid detection so far by turning his body a little bit and pulling on his shirt so the wound wasn't visible at all and he had managed to fool even the gate guards with that trick, but it would eventually bleed through and expose his wound.

'_I need to find a tailor soon.'_ He realized as he remembered how long it had been since he had had his clothes repaired.

"Well, it is getting a little late…" Raerek mused to himself while eying the unconscious girl on her bed.

"To hell with it!" He suddenly exclaimed, "I'll just take a shower and explore the Aristocratic district until dusk, then I'll head back to the hotel." He decided. After all, he was loaded from all of the recent missions that he had taken because of the predicted war. Paying the entrance fee, even two days in a row, would be no problem. He could probably even buy a permanent pass.

With his decision made, Raerek quickly took a shower before wrapping his wound with some strips of cloth that he tore from the bottom of the robe he covered Arianne with. He then put on his regular clothes and grabbed everything that he'd grabbed before, and then set out for the Aristocrat district.

It didn't take too long for him to find the entrance of the aristocrat district. The gates here reminded him of the gates at the entrance of the city, but less intimidating.

"Halt!" He remembered this part. Raerek prepared to trick the guards again but abandoned the attempt as he saw the guards. These ones were clearly more intelligent and experienced than the gate guards, as shown by their more regal armor, but that was to be expected. After all, these guards were tasked with protecting some of the most important people in the city.

"I'm going to have to ask you to surrender your weapon and pay the fee in you want to enter this district." The guard in front said calmly, but his two friends reaching toward their weapons gave away the threat-"Resist and die."

"I can give you the money, but I'm afraid that I can't give you my sword." He put his hands up as the two guards drew their weapons and the third one looked like he was about to, "Wait! It's because my sword is enchanted, it becomes extremely heavy and hot for anyone who it doesn't accept as a wielder." Raerek said quickly, but the guards still didn't lower their weapons.

"Prove it." The lead guard said and held out his hand. "Fine, but I did warn you." Raerek said as he grabbed his sword and started super charging it with invisible fire magic energy and quickly casted a Gravity spell on the sword as his hand touched the handle.

"Whoa!" the guard exclaimed as, the moment he touched the sword, he was dragged to the ground.

"Ahh!" he then exclaimed and immediately let go of the sword as it began glowing red hot.

"Very well." The head guard said as he moved away from the sword and the other two sheathed their swords and Raerek picked up and sheathed his sword, "But all guards will know to attack you on sight if you so much as touch your weapon." He warned.

"Alright. Thank you." Raerek said as he walked through the now open gates.

The Aristocrat district really was beautiful. With all of the gorgeous statues and the way the evening light reflected off of the water, it was very easy to see why this district was claimed by the high class.

Raerek just wandered around at first, slowly going deeper and deeper into the district. The residents, luckily, didn't mind his weapon, simply assuming that he was a guard of high enough stature to dress freely.

He remembered his personal mission, but seeing all of the high quality weapons and armor around, he would be lying if he said he wasn't tempted to go spend some of his gold.

His iron will was shattered, however, when he saw a blacksmith who appeared to be making and repairing armor while his wife worked on the silk wheel.

He quickly made his way over and brought out his pouch of gold, "Hello, good sir. Do you happen to be able to repair both armor and clothes? I've found myself needing repairs for quite some time, but have never found a smith that seemed as capable as you." The smith may have been intelligent enough to work in the high class district, but he was still greatly swayed but such obvious compliments and politeness.

"Of course." The man replied with a bow, "How may I help you?"

"My armor and clothes were damaged recently in a fight, and I was wondering if you would be able to repair them in a timely manner?" Raerek said as he looked expectantly at the smith.

"Yes, I would be able to repair any armor that you bring to me know within two and a half hours, before the sun has even set!" the man exclaimed proudly as he puffed his chest out.

"Very well, I shall send a courier to acquire my armor and bring it to me so that you might repair it." Raerek replied as he waved over a nearby courier and gave the boy directions to his horse and instructions on what to get.

"You'll get the rest when you come back." Raerek warned as he dropped a single gold coin into the boy's hand.

"Yes sir! I'll be back a quick as I'm able sir!" The boy exclaimed as he ran off through the streets.

And the boy was indeed quick, it barely took him ten minutes, even carrying back the heavy armor that Raerek wore.

"Very quick, lad." The boy beamed at Raerek's praise and quickly bowed an ran off after Raerek dropped nine more gold coins into the boy's hands.

"Well, I'll be damned!" the blacksmith said, shocked, "I haven't seen armor this quality since the last time I visited on of the castle smiths in the southern capital! Who exactly are you friends with, boy?" the blacksmith questioned jokingly.

"How quickly can you fix it?" Raerek questioned intently. "About an hour or so, it's not banged up that bad at all." The blacksmith answered while looking at the armor and getting a feel for it.

"I'll be back in an hour." Was all Raerek said before dropping a dozen gold coins into the blacksmith's hands and walking off to wander the streets again.

An hour passed quickly for Raerek, and it was starting to get dark earlier than he'd expected it to, so he quickly made his way back to the blacksmith to find his armor ready and waiting for him.

"Do you have a room where I could change?" Raerek questioned the man without looking at him as he gazed over his armor.

"Sure, there's a stall behind the shop." The blacksmith said as he walked back to his forge to work on other orders.

Raerek made his way to the stall and started to get changed into his armor and see how it felt.

Just before he finished he recalled the sky getting dark early.

'_Usually I'm right on in calling the time that the sun will rise or set. What could have happened this time?'_ he wondered to himself before he suddenly remembered the last time that he had been wrong.

The sky had been the same shade of black that it was now, and the following was a tragedy.

Raerek fumbled with the door of the stall as he tried to get out to warn the guards of the incoming danger. He finally got out but by the time he did, it was too late.

The first sounds to assault his ears were screams of terror.

**Poll: Alright, after this Saga in the story, Raerek and co. will be traveling to a different country for a little while, and I've decided to leave where up to you, readers. Anywho, where he goes next will determine what adventures he will have, who he will meet and what OCs will come into the story, so think carefully.**

**The choices are:**

**1-Petra**

**2-Ammodis**

**3-Iiomeno**

**As a final reminder, guards that are 'publicly female' can only come from Iiomeno, but you can submit a character who is a warrior, healer, cook, hunter, etc. so long as she isn't officially sanctioned by the country's government. Have fun!**

**Hello! Time for. . .**

**REVIEW RESPONSES!**

**_Archsage12_: Thanks for the review, first off XD, secondly, yup, I've got it all planned out on how to introduce *him* lol. Yeah, hellhounds and the like are just minor demons and stuff. Trust me, he'd have had quite a bit of trouble if it was a pack of harpies or even a large pack of wargar (*hint*hint*). Thank you for the compliments! You really describe Arianne well, so it's easy to get a feel (LOL) for her :D.**

_**dr-so3**_**: Thanks for reviewing! I hope that this story gives you a little more insight into the mind of Raerek :). I hope you enjoy the rest of this story, I do aim to make my writing as good as possible so if you see any errors, please, don't hesitate to point them out! Anyway, nope, Arianne is Archsage12's, forgot to put that in the first chapter ^^;. I hope that you enjoy the rest of the story!**


	3. Siege on the City

Raerek de Lionei

Chapter 3: Siege on the City

**AN: Hi everyone! Thanks for sticking with me this far! Anyway, I'm going to be adding author's notes at the end from now chapter on, just so you know. Enjoy the story!**

**Side note: Most of the time when a perspective shifts, it happens at about the same time as the previous perspective. Hope that helps!**

**Disclaimer: I own pretty much nothing except for my OC and the plot. Aaron and Arianne belong to Archsage12.**

- - -Durshten: Megalo Louloudi Inn

Arianne gasped loudly as she woke up, immediately grasping her head in an attempt to help numb the throbbing pain in her cranium and the ringing in her ears.

"What happened?" She moaned to herself before remembering that she had done the same thing earlier the same day.

She frowned to herself, _'I really need to stop getting knocked out. But where is…?'_ she thought before the ground began shaking violently and threw her off of the bed which she was on.

That jolted her into full awareness as she took in her surroundings.

The room she was in was rather plane, with light brown colored wallpaper and white feather beds and a spacious work desk and a washroom on the other side of the room, separated by a door. Just outside the washroom was a large dresser with four long drawers in it.

Arianne glanced intently around the room, while not the most wealthy of inns, it was certainly one of the better ones.

'_For the life of me…_' she thought, _'I can't shake the feeling that this room is fami-wait!'_ she thought to herself before remembering why she felt so familiar with this room.

Not this room specifically, but a room just like it at the Megalo Louloudi Inn, where she had stayed with her partner and stored her supplies before-

Arianne quickly cut off that train of thought as she jumped off the floor and ram for the door. _'Unlocked!'_ she couldn't believe her luck as she ran out into the hallway and checked the room number.

103, "So I'm on the first floor? I've just got to go up one then." Arianne said to herself as she began making her way to where she knew the stairs to be as she stumbled and fell again due to another earthquake.

"Ugh!" She exclaimed as she pushed herself up and shook her head to get rid of the ringing in her ears.

Now that her ears were clear she could her the roaring going on around her, the crackle of fires burning around the block and the war cries of the guards as they fought off the invaders.

She began walking slowly up the stairs, clinging to the wall like a lifeline as she listened to sounds that could tell her who was invading her home town.

She finally reached her room on the second floor, conveniently it was the first one on the right, and marveled again at her good fortune when she found the room unlocked.

She gasped when she saw why though.

The room had been scattered, as if in frantic search for something. There were clothes scattered everywhere, and the drawers had been all but ripped out.

She hurried across to the farther bed of two and looked underneath it before crawling in herself.

Arianne softly felt around for a piece of wood sticking up and, when she found it, slowly slid it sideways and took out the thin chest within.

She began crawling out from underneath but her robe caught on a stray piece of wood under the bed and pulled off the cloak as she came out, leaving her dressed only in her trousers and undershirt.

'_Wait,'_ she thought slowly, _'I wasn't wearing an undershirt.'_ It took a moment for this realization to sink in but, after it did, she quickly searched her chest for any form of undergarment.

Arianne blushed in embarrassment, anger and shame when she realized that this near stranger had seen her exposed not only once, but TWICE!

She almost growled when she thought of him again, Raerek de Lionei.

She knew about him, yes, what knowledgeable guard wouldn't?

The man that every country was after, one of a small group of select people that would, supposedly, be able to single handedly turn the tide of nearly any battle, matched only by one of their own.

There were twelve of this group originally, but three had been killed off by the bloody combat that these powerful people would always wage against each other.

They were all said to be blessed by one of the Olympians themselves and to have received gifts from each god personally.

Specifically on that man, Raerek, he was supposedly blessed by Athena and an extremely skilled combatant in swordplay, and still act as a mage, a feat in itself.

Of course, Arianne knew some magic herself, but she would stand no chance against him if it came down to any form of frontal combat, and even distance combat she would have been previously hard pressed to keep up with him.

She didn't know why she hadn't recognized his name sooner. _'What a fool I've been!'_ she chastised herself for forgetting such an important foe.

It also explained why he didn't just kill her.

While being one of the more powerful of the remaining nine, Raerek was also the most peaceful and kind, even though that wasn't saying much. But, he didn't go out on random killing sprees for practice and fun, so he was better than the rest of them.

Arianne shook her head again as she rid herself of thoughts about the man who had saved her life, only to endanger it again.

She sat on the bed after pulling her cloak free and opened the box before taking an outfit out of it and changing into it.

She was now dressed in a light grey tunic, the hood pulled up to cover much of her face so it is almost completely obscured. She had on white fingerless gauntlets/gloves on either of her forearms and a white cape draped over her right shoulder, the inside of the cape a crimson red. She wore black pants and white leather boots. To finish the look, she had a pouch attached to her waist and a grown shoulder guard on both shoulders.

As she walked by the bed again she took the only remaining item out of the chest, her quiver, and strapped it to her back before filling it to the brim with arrows.

Looking down at herself and nodding, she opened the window and dived out into the hay bale for the horses. (Kudos to you if you get the reference ;D.)

As she climbed out of the hay bale she noted the fire slowly inching its way to the horses strapped to the stable.

Arianne quickly ran over to the water trough and grabbed a bucket, proceeding to dump as much water as she could on the fire, effectively putting it out.

"Hey." She looked at Ischyro as she finished untying all of the horses, "You're Raerek's horse, aren't you?" she asked him and he neighed in response to hearing his master's name.

"You want to give me a ride?" She questioned him as he stomped the ground, signaling her to get on.

"Alright!" She exclaimed as she jumped on the horse and materialized her bow in her right hand, "Let's ride!" as she spurred the horse into action, riding off into the now deserted and burning streets of the Central District, following the sounds of combat.

'_Don't worry Aaron!'_ She thought to herself as she rode, _'If you're still in the city, I'll find you!'_

- - -Durshten: Aristocrat District

When Raerek burst from the stall, the first thing that greeted him was smoke and screams.

He did a quick check of his armor to make sure it was in working order.

He was wearing a royal blue chest plate, covering both his chest and stomach, with black lining the edges of the separate plates, and same colored triple layered pauldrons hanging over each shoulder.

From his forearms to his fingertips he was wearing royal blue gauntlets with the different plates on the fingers jutting out slightly over the knuckle behind it and coming together in a triangle shape over each individual knuckle. The forearm segment was black rimmed and went all the way around his forearm.

Underneath his chest armor was dull silver chainmail and on his shoulders, also going around the front of his neck a little bit, was a somewhat tattered maroon cloak/mantle, which went down to his ankles and had a black long sword emblem on the back of it.

On his legs he wears plated leg armor with the same color scheme as his chest armor and royal blue grieves on his feet with the chainmail extending down past his legs too.

He smirked to himself when he saw that his armor was in very good condition.

"Well, I guess I can go fight." He chuckled to himself, "It's been too long since I've had a good massacre."

He laughed out loud at his last statement, but it wasn't a normal laugh. This one was filled with the Devil, bursting with insanity and insatiable bloodlust.

He picked up his sword from beside the changing room and took off in a run toward the northern area of the Aristocrat District, where he could hear the fighting taking place.

By the time he got there, though, the last of the enemies had been slain by a young man with a spear.

The boy appeared to be about 5'10" and had dirty blond hair and pale skin, accentuating his dark purple eyes.

The boy was wearing the usual guard's armor plus silver shin guards, but that wasn't what got Raerek's attention, it was the boy's weapon.

The handle was dark blue in color, with unrecognizable hieroglyphs engraved all along it. These hieroglyphs seemed to glow a light blueish color. The point of the spear was silvery, and was shaped in a deformed trident - the point in the middle was longer and wider while the two others were shorter and thinner.

The weapon gave off an aura that almost immediately sent Raerek into a deep rage within his mind.

'_POSEIDON!"_ He raged within his mind, barely able to control himself from attacking the boy on sight.

The small group of six soldiers seemed to have just noticed him and reacted accordingly when they saw his regal armor.

"SIR!" they all exclaimed with short bows of respect. "What's going on here?" Raerek questioned impatiently, being around anything that had to do with Poseidon put him in a worse mood than usual.

It was the spear boy who spoke up, "Sir, the wargar and their allies are attacking the city and making were making a beeline for the castle. We managed to divert them from the direct path, so they have to go through one of the side districts in order to get through to the Guard's district, SIR!" he exclaimed.

"And who might you be, soldier?" he questioned the boy.

"My name is Aaron Haidwell, SIR!" the now known Aaron exclaimed.

"Shut up." Raerek told him quickly, "You need not call me sir, but I am taking command of this group."

Most of the guards seemed to be put at ease by that, but one was agitated, "What gives you the right to just take over this little group here?" he questioned Raerek.

Before anyone could respond a new wave of wargar appeared.

The creatures were hideous, being only vaguely humanoid in stature. They had deathly pale skin and grotesquely large claws on their hands and feet, and their faces were dominated by their unhinged mouths with shown with blood soaked teeth, so sharp and pointed that they appeared to have mouths full of swords. Their eyes were milky white and their ears pointed above their bald heads, which sat on stubby necks and hunched shoulders. (Wargar, Hunted: The Demon's Forge.)

The monsters were cloaked in only leather trousers or battle skirts to cover their lower bodies and wielding either cruelly serrated swords with shields or large spiked clubs, both covered in blood.

"Rhaag!" One growled as it jumped at the guard who spoke up and, with uncanny ease, tore through his armor with his teeth and ripped out his heart, quickly chewing it and swallowing with a satisfied burp.

"You BASTARD!" Aaron exclaimed as he rushed toward the beast that had killed the guard, completely ignoring the other four.

"Well, let's go fight then. Athena, are you with me?" Raerek said amusedly as he drew his sword and charged the nearest wargar, slicing through its club and cutting the thing in half.

This action seemed to start the others into battle, and it took only seconds before the wargar were overwhelmed and killed.

"That was easy." Raerek said jokingly as he and the group began making their way through the gate leading to the Guard District, preparing to fight their way to the castle.

"Athena, guide my blade." Raerek whispered reverently as he placed his right hand on his sword hilt.

- - -Meanwhile-Durshten: Central District

Arianne launched another bull's eye through a wargar's eye. She was so skilled that she didn't even really need to focus too much on aiming any more, even on horseback.

As a woman she wasn't as strong as men, and thus couldn't swing a sword as hard or lift a battle axe a swift, so she could only train in archery.

Since she spent all of her time training in that and even dabbling in magic a decent amount, she was skilled in those areas.

She still had a long way to go before she was a true master of the bow, but she was getting there.

"Whoa!" she yelled as Ischyro reared back to crush a wargar's skull with his hooves, nearly throwing off Arianne in the process.

"Easy there, boy." She patted the horse's head before they once again took off at a brisk trot.

"I wonder if Aaron is still even here?" She wondered to herself, "And maybe he's with my father! After all, that's who he went to get, wasn't it?" she mused excitedly.

Ischyro seemed to neigh in agreement as Arianne headshot another wargar as Ischyro continued to outrun all that he could.

There was soon a point where they could not pass, though, as a horde of the beasts had gathered around the closed gate leading from the Central District to the Guard District.

"Oh crud…" Arianne muttered as she saw the obscenely large amount of wargar at the gate.

"Thanks for your help!" she said to the horse as she dismounted, the horse galloping away to go find its master.

The moment she was off the horse, Arianne took off for the nearest building and began scaling it as best as she was able, trying to get in a good position for bow fire.

When she got to the top of the small building, she summoned her bow and grabbed five arrows out of her quiver.

She steadied her breath and stilled her mind for some of her most difficult shots.

*_thwank*_

Was the sound made as she released all five arrows at once, each one of them planting itself into a wargar's head.

The distraction caused chaos among the wargar and gave the soldiers guarding the gate more than enough time to kill many of the now disorganized wargar.

"Whew!" she sighed, wiping some nervous sweat off of her brow, that was one shot that she had not completely mastered yet, but it worked sometimes, and that was what she was counting on.

It was only a chance sight of the shadow that saved her from beheading.

Arianne dodged frantically to the right, drawing another arrow into her bow and began to bring her bow up.

She wasn't fast enough though, the sword wielding wargar quickly tore her bow from her hands and flung it into the air, where it dematerialized.

Arianne tried to run away, but ended up tripping and falling backwards at the edge of the building with the wargar slowly advancing on her, as if it already knew of its victory.

Arianne cursed everything she could think of as she looked for anyway out of her current situation.

'_Dammit! I don't even have a knife! Oh Aaron, I'm so sorry…'_ were what she thought would be her last thoughts before time seemed to slow down to a stop around her and a bright flash appeared in front of her, revealing a glowing man.

He was tall, towering over any man she had seen before at 7'3", with tan skin, bright blue eyes and dark brown hair that was neatly combed to the left side of his head. He was cloaked in a large white toga, with brown leather sandals and a golden circlet.

What had captured Arianne's attention, though, was what the man was carrying.

A large harp and a bow similar to hers.

"Apollo…" she whispered breathlessly.

-Durshten: Guard District

"Hyaa!" Aaron exclaimed as he impaled another wargar before blowing it off of his spear with an explosion of ice magic, also serving to clear the area around him.

Raerek had to admit that, even if he didn't like the kid, his fighting skills were superb.

'_As a matter of fact'_ Raerek thought as he bisected another one before crushing the skull of another with his blade, _'it almost reminds me of how _he_ used to fight. But I killed that asshole, so no worries. After all, he hasn't even used water magic yet.'_

Raerek released a burst of magical energy from his sword and smashed it against the ground, causing a small shockwave to clear the area around him before holding his sword up into the air and chanting.

"Flames of hell, fire's true hall, consume my foes, destroy them all!" he exclaimed before slashing his sword in a wide arc and spinning, disintegrating any wargar that came to close to him.

"This will end it!" he cried, laughing maniacally, before throwing his weapon into a large crowd of wargar that had grouped together.

"DIE!" he screamed before crossing his arms over his chest then throwing the out wide, releasing huge amounts of fire magic from his body as he and his sword exploded in flames.

The two massive explosions of magic drew the attention of every combatant in the area, filled with awe and horror at the destruction wrought by that magic.

The guards were about to start mourning the sacrifice of the man in blue armor when they heard a sound.

It was laughing, demented laughing, filled with bloodlust and insanity, terrifying the wargar and sending them into a panic, charging at the still roaring flames to kill whatever evil creature had uttered such a diabolical sound.

They didn't make it that far.

Raerek charged out of the fire like a demon out of hell, slashing and hacking like a madman.

He didn't appear to care for the light burns all over his body, nor for the gore covering his form, his eyes were glazed with a wide grin on his face.

His movements were powerful and flowing, but he seemed out of focus and a little jerky, as if he wasn't in control of his own limbs.

Like a puppet on a string.

- - -Durshten: Central District

The god smiled down upon the fallen girl as he commanded her, "Stand up, Arianne."

Said girl promptly did as asked. After all, one does not simply disobey a god.

"M'lord." She gasped as she lowered her eyes from his face and said not a word otherwise.

"It appears to me that you are having trouble. Even a bow similar to my own could not aid you in this situation." Apollo frowned as he seemed to look at her again. "I had known that you were a female, but I suppose I still didn't truly recognize that until I have seen you in such dress."

Arianne still refused to raise her eyes from the god's feet for fear of invoking his wrath.

"You may gaze upon my face, Arianne. After all, you still maintain your position as my chosen."

That statement made Arianne gasp and look up to the god with wide eyes as she failed to comprehend what was told to her. "Your champion?"

"Indeed." Apollo replied to her, "Or did you think that I gave you that first bow out of pure kindness?" he asked amusedly.

Arianne contemplated for a moment before she realized another thing, "Wasn't your champion one of the three killed in combat between the twelve Servants of the Olympians?"

Apollo's face darkened, "Yes, killed by the one who served Hera. But it matters not," he regained he lighthearted demeanor, "for you have taken his place."

That thought seemed to horrify Arianne even more though, "But it is said that the twelve are bloodthirsty beasts in human form! That their battle rage is insatiable and their humanity lost!" she cried to the god, "Please! Do not force me to become a beast, I will do any other thing!"

At her plea Apollo laughed a hearty laugh, "Fool child." He chastised, "Those men and women had lost themselves to the power gifted to them by the gods. They all started out as moral as can be, true champions. But time eroded their chivalry." He finished almost mournfully.

Arianne stayed silent. _'I truly don't wish this, but what other choice do I have?'_

"Very well." She consented slowly, "I give my being to you, my lord, to become your champion and carry out your will upon this world."

Apollo grinned as he grasped her forearm.

Arianne screamed like she had never screamed before as a mark burned itself into her flesh.

"RRRRHHHHAAAAAAGGGGGG!" was the only noise that she could make as she felt the god's magical energy flow into her being, strengthening her.

"It is done…" Apollo said ominously before starting to fade away slowly.

Arianne looked at the mark on her arm, as simple half-sun, before it faded into her skin.

"I have gifted you with a new bow to replace the one which you lost. It is the same, yet different. You will understand." Was all the god said before fading into nothing.

"Wait!" Arianne shouted after the divine being as soon as time started to move again.

The wargar was slowly starting to move again as Arianne realized that she was in the same position that she was when time stopped.

Arianne looked back up at the wargar and sneered in disgust at the creature.

'_I won't let _this_ of all things kill me!'_ she shouted within her mind as she shot up faster than Arianne had previously thought possible and reached out to punch the creature as it swung its blade.

Too late did Arianne realize her folly, _'I'm sorry everyone…'_ she closed her eyes and waited for the blade to pierce her when she heard a cry of pain.

Opening her eyes Arianne gasped at what she saw.

The wargar was impaled on an arrow of pure light magic, originating from her hand, its sword on the ground inches from her side.

- - -Durshten: Guard District

Raerek flicked the fresh blood off of his blade as the rest of the guard stared at him in shock and wonder.

He had just decimated the most recent wave of wargar and caused the survivors to flee back into the Aristocrat District.

"What?" Raerek asked, annoyed at all of the stares directed towards him.

Aaron seemed to snap out of his shock the fastest, "Who are you?" he couldn't keep the slight quiver out of his voice.

"My name," Raerek said dramatically, "is Raerek de Lionei." And at once all of the guard nearly dropped their weapons out of pure shock.

In their defense, a practical living legend stood before them and had assisted them in combat.

The group was shaken out of their collective stupor when Raerek called out "You guys coming? I'm going to the caste, and I'm not going to wait up." Before he started walking.

The guards gathered their weapons and took off after Raerek, quickly catching up to him.

"Why are you here, Sir Lionei?" the question came from Aaron, who was walking slightly behind the blue knight.

"Stop calling me that." Raerek growled out, "I gave up knighthood long ago."

Aaron seemed taken aback, but still persisted, "Maybe so, but what else am I to call you?"

Without missing a beat, Raerek replied coolly, "I don't care, just not sir."

Aaron smirked a little bit, "Alright then, Raerek, why did you come to Durshten?"

Raerek frowned, but otherwise gave no visible reaction, "I came seeking help for a wounded ally, as well as a place to rest."

"What is his name?" Aaron was determined to make conversation with the living legend and, dare he say it, one of his role models.

So strong and confident, as well as brave Raerek, to Aaron at least, seemed to be the epitome of what a knight should be. He was even supposed to be compassionate and merciful and kind in Aaron's ideal world.

"Her." Raerek stated without even looking at the boy.

"Her? What an odd name." Aaron mused as he scratched his chin.

"No, my companion was a female." Raerek gave Aaron an annoyed look and sped up the walking pace a little bit.

"So you were traveling with a girl? What's her name?" Aaron asked, smiling broadly.

"Arianne Seatos." Raerek replied before moving on ahead.

Aaron's spear clattered to the ground.

- - -Durshten: Guard District

Arianne stared in shock at the arrow that had generated in her hand.

Sure, she'd practiced light magic and sometimes tried to create elemental bows, but nothing like this.

"How…?" was all that Arianne could ask herself as she looked up from the bow to realize that she isn't quite done yet.

After all, when there are still a couple of sword wielding wargar coming at you, and just one nearly killed you, you've still got a little bit of work to do.

"Apollo, show me the way." Arianne prayed, looking up to the clouded sun.

She then summoned her bow and almost dropped it because it felt so different.

Arianne looked at her bow closely, _'Still looks the same.'_ She thought before realizing why it felt so different from her other bow.

While her other bow was a powerful one pumped full of magical energy and given to her, this bow seemed to be inherently magical, if the aura it was giving off was anything to go by.

It was also of a much stronger and lighter material, even though it looked the same as her first bow, this one only felt like it weighed about 9 pounds and still maintained stability.

Arianne snapped out of admiring her bow when one of the wargar growled, almost at the top of the building that she was on.

She looked for a moment at the arrow of magic in her hand before notching the bow and shooting the arrow.

'_What's going on-'_ was all that Arianne could wonder as she lost consciousness the moment the arrow left her hand.

'_What's happening?'_ Arianne asked herself as she felt the air around her whipping by and the ground flying by at a quick pace.

At least, until she pierced a wargar through its eye and came out the back of its head, still moving.

She looked on in amazement until she realized something, _'Is this my arrow? Is this what that light arrow does?'_ she wondered in shock.

'_Well, time to find out.'_ She thought to herself as she willed herself to steer right, moving only a little bit.

'_No! I need more!'_ she yelled inside her head and tried turning again, only managing to get a little farther, but still not close to turning around back to the wargar.

'_STOP!'_ she cried in her mind and, all at one, the arrow stopped and started hovering in the air.

'_Now this is more like it.'_ Arianne was confident that, if she had a mouth, she'd be smirking.

She quickly turned around and launched herself at the nearest wargar, going straight through its neck and killing it instantly.

'_Gods dammit!'_ she thought as she saw a couple of wargar advancing towards her unconscious body, and proceeded to shoot towards them.

The wargar looked up at the strange whooshing noise in their ears, but it was still too late, Arianne caught one in the head and the other through its stomach, killing the first but keeping the other one incapacitated.

'_Now, if only I was in my body-'_ was as far as Arianne's thoughts went before she felt herself 'waking up' and the arrow dissipating.

"Now," she threatened, drawing her bow at the downed creature, "where did you think you were going?"

"Me no tell you no thing, human!" the wargar exclaimed, but seemed to cower when Arianne aimed the bow directly in his face.

"No, no! No shoot! Me talk! Me tell you we head to castle! No kill, no kill!" the wargar pleaded in a panic to save its life.

"And who sent you?" Arianne asked the creature, glaring at it disgustedly.

"Me no know! Me no told! Me told to go to big castle and kill, nothing else! Me help you, right? Me go now? No kill?" the wargar questioned hopefully.

"No." was Arianne's short response as she let loose the arrow she had notched straight through the wargar's head, pinning it to the ground.

"Pathetic." She growled, disgusted, as she spit on the beast's corpse.

"Well, at least I know where they're all going." She sighed to herself and took off toward the castle. From where she was it was just a straight shot through the guard district.

Arianne sighed in relief when she remembered that the gates to the district had previously been closed, meaning that wargar could only flood in through the sides.

'_So this won't turn into a blood fest. At least, not until I get to the castle._' She mused to herself as she climbed down the building and took off running through the, now opened, gates, saluting the guards as she ran through.

'_While I'm there, I might as well try and solve my other problem…'_ she thought to herself as she ran.

Arianne decided quickly and dropped the question when she saw the castle gates.

They were busted down, and dead bodies were everywhere.

- - -Durshten: Guard District

"Did you say Arianne?" Aaron questioned Raerek quietly as the group stopped for a rest, the castle gate almost at the edges of their vision.

"Indeed." Raerek replied, trying to be civil, no matter how much he wanted to rip out the boy's tongue.

"And she was dressed in guard uniform, and wielded a bow?" Aaron asked again, face filled with hope.

"For the final time, yes!" Raerek shouted at Aaron, fed up with his persistent questioning, "What does it matter to you anyway?"

Aaron froze, "Umm, no reason." He said quickly with a smile.

Raerek raised an eyebrow at the strange behavior, but didn't question it. After all, the girl would still be coming with him after this, if the boy wanted to follow them then fine. Raerek wouldn't watch out for him.

"Another wave!" one of the guards cried from on top of a building where he had taken lookout.

"Where do they even come from?" Raerek questioned the universe.

When the universe didn't answer his question, Raerek prepared himself for battle, drawing his sword and readying his magical energies.

Raerek looked over and saw Aaron doing the same thing, as well as the other physical combatants.

Raerek had gone over the group after they had gotten into the guard district and found out that they had two archers, one axe wielder, two swordsmen, Aaron wielding a spear, and himself wielding a greatsword.

Raerek felt that they were ready for whatever could come, but even he paled slightly when he heard the large amount of chattering voices.

"By the gods!" the lookout exclaimed, "There's got to be at least three hundred of the bastards!"

"Don't fall back! We will fight!" Raerek yelled over his shoulder, trying to boost the men's confidence.

"Athena help us…" he said unconsciously as he saw the enemy army.

It was a sea of pale, stretching on for as far as they could see, each wargar armed to the teeth, literally.

Raerek charged ahead of all of the others, already charging up spells for use.

"Haste, Veil, Protect." Raerek muttered as the spells took place.

Haste was to speed up his movement and reflexes, protect was to partially shield him from all physical attacks, and veil was to protect him from any poison that might be on the monster's weapons.

Raerek swung his sword in a wide arc, decapitating the three wargar in front of him and shocking both his group and the wargar out of their respective trances.

"CHARGE!" Aaron shouted at the top of his lungs as he and the others charged into battle as well.

'_Well,'_ Aaron thought to himself, _'Not the worst way to go. At least I'll go down fighting.'_ He smiled to himself at that thought, that he might go the way of a true hero.

"Pay attention!" Raerek yelled at Aaron as he stabbed a wargar who was about to bash Aaron's head in.

"Sorry!" Aaron exclaimed before he once again began summoning ice magic to kill the wargar around him, slashing with his spear at any who got too close.

He allowed himself a small smile, _'You're alive, Arianne.'_

After he had that thought, Aaron's eyes filled with determination, and he let loose a battle cry, charging at the main bulk of the army.

Of he would have, had Raerek not grabbed him and turned him around to face the group that they were already fighting.

"You go help your squad," Raerek told Aaron sternly, "I'll take care of these pitiful creatures." And with that, ran off to confront the group of two hundred plus wargar.

'_I didn't want to have to use _it_ so soon into my time here, but I guess I have no choice.'_ Raerek frowned as he placed his free hand over his chest.

'_A momentary transformation should be enough, I'll only need one attack.'_ Raerek decided while seeming to take something out of his chest.

"Shield your eyes!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Crashing Blade!" he exclaimed and threw the object into the air before slashing it, resulting in a blinding white light.

"RRRRRRRRHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOAAAAA AAAAGGGGGGGG!" the sound made all of the combatants freeze in fear, even if they couldn't see what they were fearing, due to the light.

And suddenly, it was over. Where the main bulk of the wargar were before there was only a small crater and a myriad of dead bodies scattered around.

And in the center of this destruction, seeming unconscious, was Raerek.

"AAAAhhhhh!" the remaining fifty some wargar uttered the same fearful cry before fleeing back to where they came from.

"Raerek!" Aaron exclaimed as he climbed down into the crater where the azure knight lye.

"Ugh." The clearly unconscious Raerek moaned as Aaron rolled him onto his back.

"Does anyone have any smelling salts?" Aaron questioned the remaining group members.

They had lost one of the archers when wargar climbed up the building and surrounded him, and they lost one of their swordsmen, as well as their axe man, leaving only four people still in the group.

"I have some." The remaining archer said solemnly as he reached into his pack and pulled out a small pouch.

"Thank you." Aaron said, smiling kindly at the bowman.

"Raerek, wake up." Aaron said gently as he waved the foul smelling element underneath Raerek's nose.

"What the-!" Raerek shot up quickly, nearly knocking over Aaron, "Damn, how long was I out?"

"Just a few minutes." Aaron replied quickly, "We got you up as fast as we could." He explained while handing back the smelling salts to the archer.

"We should keep moving." Raerek tried to stand up, but ended up falling over.

"Not yet, we're not. You need to rest and so do we. When we're all rested, then we'll move again." Aaron chastised.

Raerek looked about to argue, but let it go in favor of laying down and fishing something out of one of the pouches around his waist.

"These should help exponentially." Raerek said as he handed them each a small green vial, "They're Potions. Level IV Potions, actually."

The vials were quickly emptied after that declaration, everyone wiping their mouths of what little they spilled.

"There, better?" Raerek questioned the tired soldiers amusedly.

The soldiers, exhausted from the magical potion flowing through their veins and healing their wounds, merely nodded gratefully.

"Where did you get those?" the remaining swordsman questioned incredulously, "Level IV Potions aren't the easiest things in the world to come by."

"You all know who I am now, so how much gold do you think I charge for my services?" Raerek seemed almost like he was about to laugh as realization dawned on the faces of the guards.

"That's enough rest, I think." Raerek said as he stood up and stretched his legs a little, "Let's get going, the path should be clear for a little while."

He didn't need to explain his reasoning.

"Is everyone okay to move?" Aaron asked the other two members of their group.

"Yeah, me an' Dewain are good to move." Replied the swordsman as he and the bowman got up.

"Good. Now let's go." Aaron said as he turned and sped up a little to catch up with Raerek, who was a decent distance ahead of them.

"Hey! Wait for us!" the swordsman and bowman shouted in unison as they ran to catch up with the two skilled fighters.

The castle gates were in sight, it wouldn't be long now before they made it to the castle.

The twitchy, fearful eyes of a wargar were seen clearly in the shadows of an ally which the group passed by. _'Must warn master! Must bring help!'_ were the creatures thoughts as it ran off into the night, faster than any human could run.

**Annnnd, done! Wheh, about 7,000 words again! Anyway, my explanation to why this chapter took so long.**

**So, I wanted to finish the Durshten Saga this chapter, but as I kept writing and writing, I soon realized that I easily broke 10,000 words. So I kept writing, but eventually I hit 13,000 words and still wasn't really that close to finishing, so I decided to split the end in half. This chapter was leading up to the castle, and next chapter will take place almost entirely in the castle.**

**Thank you for waiting for this update! Don't forget to R&R! I would have updated _this_ chapter earlier this weekend, but my brother stole the computer again -_-**

**WARNING: I would like to plead to all readers of this story to VOTE ON THE POLL! I put it up last chapter for a reason. I can't start the next saga until there is a clear victor in the polls with at least 4 votes! So VOTE! Thank you, and have a nice day.**

**Last thing, if you want to submit an OC, but don't have a fanfiction account, my Deviantart account is on my profile. If you send your request there, I'll be more than happy to take it :D.**

**Reviews:**

**"Guest": I think I know who you are *wink*wink*, so yeah. Thanks for reviewing! Yeah, I made up Oraia and the countries in it, anyway, the ending for next chappie is UBER exciting! :D Yeah, I just wanted people to know Arianne's backstory for these next few chapters, so yeah. ;)**


	4. SotC: When in Castles

Chapter 4: Siege on the City, Part 2: When in castles…

**AN: Hello! Hope you didn't get too bored waiting for me! **

**First, HAPPY LATE THANKSGIVING! But only if you live in America, cause you don't know what I'm talking about if you don't.**

**R&R PLZ! Enjoy!**

**And to Archsage12, before the chapter, why she doesn't care that he found out her "secret", it's because she knows he won't recognize her ever, and never connected her with Brad, so she just doesn't care.**

**Side note: I have two things marked in this chapter, so watch out for them at the end author's note.**

**Disclaimer: I only own Raerek and the plotline pretty much. I did make up Oraia though.**

- - -Durshten: Castle District

Arianne had her bow drawn and ready to fire as she crept through the deserted and gory hallways, following the sounds of clashing swords.

"!" she gasped quietly as she looked around a corner and saw three wargar feasting on the bodies of dead soldiers.

She grabbed two extra arrows with her other fingers as she stepped out from around the corner, letting loose one arrow after another and killing all three before they uttered a sound.

'_And _that's_ how I got the name, the Rain of Arrows.'_ She smirked to herself. On a good day, she could even grab more arrows as the last one was flying, making it look like she was letting loose a steady stream of arrows.

Arianne ran to the bodies of the wargar to retrieve her arrows, but frowned when she felt how many arrows she had left in her quiver.

'_I'll have to conserve for now, don't want to run out of arrows.'_ She thought to herself as she resumed creeping down the halls of the elegantly designed palace.

The bright maroon wallpaper with bright colored tapestry and gold designs and pillars every few meters made for a very elegant design. Arianne couldn't help but marvel at its beauty, even if the walls were stained in blood.

Arianne soon came to a large door, very elegantly designed. The door itself was a deep, ocean blue color with silver and gold intertwining designs branching out from the center of the door, like a great tree.

The door would have been beautiful, had it not been smashed in and covered with blood.

Arianne could see the back garden through the doorway, as well as the fighting going on there.

There were a large amount of soldiers there, but she couldn't find the king among them, nor could she see his personal guard.

'_Good.'_ She sighed in relief, _'At least the king made it out.'_ She jumped as the body of a creature she had never seen before came crashing down beside her.

It appeared to have the torso, head and legs as a woman, as well as…other things…but that's where the similarities ended. The creature had pale grey skin and hair, but that wasn't the weirdest part. The thing had eagle talons on its feet and large feathery wings in place of arms, ending with talons similar to those on its feet. The monster's face also appeared to be womanly at first glance, but upon closer inspection one could see the slit pupils and the sharp, knife like teeth peeking out from between its lips. **(Harpy, Dragon's Dogma.)**

Arianne recoiled at the sight of such a creature before kicking it away from her and looking to the sky where it came from, only to see half a dozen more of the creatures harassing the soldiers as they tried to fight off a variety of monsters.

"Well," she muttered to herself, smirking, "better late than never. Apollo, guide my arrows." She prayed, looking up to the sun before letting loose a literal rain of arrows, exhausting her quiver, but shocking the beasts enough and taking out enough of them that the guards could start to turn the battle around.

'_Now!'_ she thought as she ran into the field, avoiding stray arrows and spells, and began to gather up her arrows.

The guards, seeing her pick up the arrows that aided them, assumed that she was a friend and protected her while she gathered her arrows by drawing the monsters' attention to themselves.

Arianne soon got enough arrows to do another rain of arrows, but it was unnecessary. While she had been gathering arrows, the remaining guards had been enough to force the invaders to retreat. Now, only the flying creatures remained, which were being made short work of by the archers, shooting them down where ground forces would finish them off.

"Thanks fer yer help, lad. Doubt we coulda turned this around as quick witout yer surprise attack." A guard said to her, his cape and insignia indicating that he was a captain.

"You're welcome." Arianne replied, lowering her hood slightly so that she could wipe the blood off of her face before putting it back up quickly.

"Ah, guessin by yer voice and yer weapon, yer quiet a skilled lass." The captain said, maintaining his heavy accent.

"I am." Arianne replied, slightly annoyed, "But I do have a question. What were those flying creatures?" she saw another get shot down out of the corner of her eye.

"Aye, those winged beasts be harpies. Scourge of the sky, they are." He said, nodding to himself. "Can't say I'm surprised ya don't know 'bout 'em. Usually stay way out on some small islands in the deep ocean waters. First time I've seen 'em this close to civilization, don' matter if it's a port town er not.

"Thank you for your help." Arianne said as she refixed her quiver on her back and prepared to move on.

"No, it's we who should be thankin' you, lass." The captain waved her off, "Good luck with whate'er yer doin. Gods know we need it." Arianne nodded to his statement before taking off in a run down the next hallway.

A low rumbling was heard by the guards as soon as they finished off all of the harpies.

"Get ready, boys. 'Ere comes an army of 'em!" all of the guards grimly drew their weapons and prepared to fight.

Unfortunately, they didn't stand a chance. The battle was over within a minute, the monsters completely overwhelming the small group.

Arianne was too far to hear their screams.

- - -Durshten: Castle District

The group of four had just passed through the gates to the Castle District, but was forced to hide in nearby shrubbery before they could enter the actual castle because of some…difficulties.

"How did so many monsters get into the city?" the swordsman whispered angrily, glaring at the horde of monsters, probably almost a hundred strong and armed.

"What I want to know is who managed to get so many different species together without killing each other." Raerek stated, his eyes scanning the mass of weapons and armor, looking for any semblance of a general, "They don't even appear to have their leader with them."

Aaron closed his eyes and shrunk back a little more behind their hiding spot, thinking intently.

"How are we going to get in?" the bowman questioned, looking worriedly at the front gates of the castle, "Even if we follow them, they'll still reach the king before we do, and we could show up too late to help!"

"I know a way." Aaron spoke up to the group, all of them turning around to face him, "But it'll require a bit of agility and we'll need to be really quiet." Raerek frowned.

"Or we could just follow the army and pick off any stragglers we see while keeping close to the group. That would allow us to launch a surprise attack right after they attack. It's a win-win." Raerek argued, fingering the hilt of his sword.

"But what if we get spotted? Then we're done for!" the bowman argued, Aaron and the swordsman nodded in agreement.

Raerek opened his mouth to make another argument but was interrupted when the entrance to the castle collapsed in a violent explosion, shaking the earth.

"Well," Aaron groaned as he got up, "guess that settles that." Raerek growled a little, but conceded and followed Aaron and the others when they left.

Aaron led them to the area around the back garden of the castle where he then pointed to the windows, which got consistently larger the higher up they were, and explained, "If we can climb these windows to a high enough point that we can squeeze through, then climb around to the balcony, we can sneak in without anyone noticing."

Aaron didn't explain any further as he started climbing and made a 'follow-me' motion with his hand.

The bowman immediately started climbing and so did the swordsman, with only slight contemplation. Raerek frowned as he looked up the building, _'Well, shit.'_ Were his thoughts as he saw the climb ahead of him.

"C'mon! Hurry up!" Aaron shouted down at Raerek, having already reached a point, four floors up, where they should all have been able to fit through.

Raerek sighed as he looked at his sword, "Gods dammit." He muttered to himself as he secured his sword and began his climb.

It was several minutes before they all got to the window where Aaron sat, a glazed look on his face, and climbed into windows beside him.

"What's wro-" the questioned died in the swordsman's throat as all of them got a look at the garden.

Massacre didn't even begin to describe the sight before them.

The garden floor seemed to be almost flooding with gore; bones, limbs and organs floating around in the thick red liquid. What few bodies remained at least partially intact were brutally ripped open and slashed horribly. The corpses were hardly even recognizable as people any more.

"My god…" the swordsman whispered in horror as the bowman puked and Raerek turned his head away, but Aaron just kept staring.

"Let's go." Raerek said quietly, leading the way to the balcony, just a few meters away, the others following him mechanically, their motions jerky until they reached safety.

"I'll kill them…" Aaron muttered, his voice hoarse.

"Say something?" Raerek questioned looking back.

"I'll kill all those goddamn motherfuckers. I'll rip their FUCKING THROATS OUT!" Aaron was screaming by the end, tears streaming down his face.

"Get in line." Raerek shot back at him coldly, "You're not the only one who's lost something to these beasts."

"But don't you see what they've taken from me!? From all of us!?" Aaron shouted at Raerek, gesturing to the other two guards, who looked solemn.

"Quit being a weakling. Pain makes you stronger, use this pain and stop being such a weak, pathetic creature. You are a man, act like it!" Raerek glared at the soldier while chastising him.

"You don't know what they've done! All of these creatures! I almost lost my best friend to one of them! Her father was _killed_ by one of them! And for what purpose!? Just to spread more blood and death and-" Aaron stopped as he was knocked back several feet.

Raerek stood there growling, fist extended, as he gripped the hilt of his sword.

The two looked about ready to fight, the swordsman and bowman caught in between, until another tremor rocked the building from an explosion, this time collapsing the way into the garden.

"Let's go." Raerek said lowly as he lowered his fists, "If you really want to stop this death and war, then stand up to it and save the king. You might even be able to save your friend too, if my hunch is right." He then turned and left.

Aaron, wide eyed, quickly got up and ran after Raerek, the other two following him as another tremor rocked the castle.

Had they stayed a moment longer, they would have seen one of the garden's walls collapse, and a giant, black/orange hand reach through and a Troll force its way through the wall, swinging its club and roaring loudly.

- - - Durshten: Castle District-King's Domain

"Graah!" A golden armored guard grunted as he swung his longsword in a large arc, killing a swath of enemies around him.

"When are these creatures going to end?" He panted as he looked around at his comrades current comrades, only three others in the room.

They were the king's personal guard, each near masters of their chosen weapon and with seven in all. With him were the bowman, Michaeliavaili (Mih-Key-El-Ey-Ah-Vail-E), of Michael as he liked to be called, cloaked in the regular archer's armor, but golden colored and with a small blue shoulder cape, as well as the captain's insignia upon his left breast.

Then there was their strider, Archianenio (Ark-E-A-Neen-Yo), who wielded twin daggers, each about the size of his forearm and covered in runes, emanating an eerie red glow. He was clothed in simple dark leather armor, a chest plate, arm, shoulder and shin guards, fingerless leather gloves, leather cleat-boots and spiked elbow and knee guards, and cloth underneath it. Archianelio's face was covered by a leather mask which covered his entire face, with holes for his eyes.

His other ally was a large bear of a man, swinging wildly with a humongous double ended battle axe. The axe might have been huge to others, but compared to the man it was the same as a normal weapon. He was Nnarixkavaar (Nyar-Ix-Kah-Vahr), the production of his mother's rape from an ogre, the half-ogre was a beast among men. He was large, and at 6'9" he was only several inches away from the ceiling, and he had large, bulging muscles all around his body, making him extremely intimidating. His sheer size alone was enough to send most men scurrying, not even looking at his features. His beady, and usually kind, eyes were currently narrowed in anger at the small creatures in front of him, his uneven and colored teeth bared in a savage growl. This man was wearing only steel paladin armor all over his legs and a leather battle skirt, his only upper body clothing being shoulder guards and an open steel helm. While this might seem a disadvantage to some, Nnarixkavaar's skin was as tough as leather due to his ogre father, only truly susceptible to the heavy weapons of paladins, and maybe a well sharpened and forged sword. However, one need only look at the man's huge axe and huge feet to see why getting close was a bad idea.

The man sighed at himself as he looked around at his comrades resting, having fought off the most recent wave of enemies, before he remembered his title, _'Siegfried (Sig-Freed)__**(1)**__ the Unmovable, huh? They why've I lost so much ground?'_ the man questioned himself, holding up his relatively plain longsword and looking at his reflection. He had pale blonde hair and fair skin with blue eyes, all signifying him as a foreigner to the land of Oraia. He let his hand raise up and trace the scar over his eye, making him frown as he shifted his golden paladin armor**(2)**.

"Sig, uhkay?" Nnarixkavaar's deep voice sounded as Siegfried snapped out of his thoughts, "Yes Nnarixkavaar, I'm fine." He waved off the gentle giant's concern.

"Siegfried, Nnarixkavaar, I do believe that the next wave is to start soon. We'd best be ready." Michaeliavaili's light and eloquent voice echoing across the room and all of them hearing his warning despite his rather soft tone. At this Siegfried signaled the others that he was fine and would be ready when the fight came.

Archianenio remained silent as he drew his daggers, causing them to burst into flames, readying himself for combat. Nnarixkavaar walked over to where he had stabbed his axe into a wall and effortlessly pulled it out, waiting for his next opponent while Michaeliavaili took an arrow and notched his bow, aiming at the door after checking the other entrances to the room. The only other ones were the overhang that the king's real throne was and the hallway beneath that, leading to the dining hall, which no access to the outside world, only to the kitchens and the ballroom, where the king was hiding.

Siegfried sighed as he stood up and picked up his silver longsword and waited, almost gasping in surprise when he saw a cloaked figure come out of the door, not monsters.

"Halt." Archianenio's hauntingly monotonously voice sounded from the silence, "State your name and purpose, or we shall slay you where you stand."

- - - Durshten: Castle District-King's Domain

Arianne froze at the weapons aimed at her and slowly raised her hands into the air.

'_Damn it… Aaron, where are you?'_ were her only thoughts when she heard the ultimatum.

"My name," Arianne licked her lips to get rid of the sudden dryness in her throat and attempting to deepen her voice a little, "is Brad Seatos. I've fought my way into here to look for a friend." Before she even finished she could feel the knight's hostility.

"The same Brad Seatos responsible for bringing the young hydra to the city?" The golden paladin asked, and she could hear his voice trembling with barely contained rage.

"I can explain-" Arianne's excuse was cut off by a low rumbling, this time not from an explosion, but from many, many footfalls in the same area.

"It's the monsters!" the archer shouted in disbelief, "At least a hundred strong from the sound!" The other knights looked on grimly at the news.

"We 'ave mon'ter lead'r!" the large one exclaimed suddenly, immediately silencing anything anyone else was saying and reverting all eyes to Arianne.

"Indeed, we do. If we could kill him now, then the monsters would surely revert into chaos and once again begin killing each other." The masked one stated quietly, his voice still eerily hollow.

The paladin drew up his sword without hesitation, his eyes burning with the intent to kill.

The first harpy flew in, and all hell broke loose.

Arianne danced out of the way of the paladin's slash and attempted to make a run for it, but was blocked by the masked man, blazing daggers raised.

'_Enchanted?'_ Arianne briefly wondered before a burning pain ripped across her arm, showing that she had been too slow to get away.

Arianne didn't stop running though, patting out the small flames on her shoulder as she pushed herself even harder to escape her pursuers.

It seemed an impossible task, though. With the giant and the archer guarding the door and both extremely skilled in combat, they were more than enough to hold off the limited number of monsters that could flood in at one time, allowing the other two to chase her. _'Great, just great.'_ Arianne thought to herself as she vaulted over the dagger wielder just in time to duck under a slash from the swordsman.

Even as more and more monsters poured in, Arianne found herself unable to counter the teamwork, speed and ferocity of her opponents.

She sighed to herself, this was going to be hard.

- - -Durshten: Castle District-King's Domain

The group's trip had continued in a tense silence, all of them ready to leap into action at the slightest sound of a monster.

"Where exactly does _this_ passage lead, boy?" Raerek questioned as he looked down balefully at Aaron, who looked back defiantly, "This should lead directly to the king's throne room, why do you care?" Aaron looked angrily at his hero.

"Because, I've got a bad feeling about this…(*hint*hint*)" Raerek looked far down the hall, to where he could see a faint light and hear distant sounds of combat, "And it looks like the king is in for the fight of his life."

The other three seemed mildly surprised at Raerek's proclamation, but continued to trudge on after the man who had now drawn his sword, prompting the others to do the same.

When the finally reached the source of the light and sounds of combat, Aaron couldn't help but gasp at what he saw.

"Arianne…" he whispered, seeing her preferred combat wear facing off against two knights, the king's bodyguards to be exact.

Aaron stepped on the ledge and was about to jump when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Burning hot with rage, he turned around only to be sobered by the hard face of Raerek as he observed the combat going on below.

"Use your mind, Haidwell. Those men, one on one, would be able to give one of my kind a work out. Two on one might be able hurt us. Three on one and they might have a shot at winning in direct combat. I might be skilled, but even I wouldn't try to take on four with only my sword." Raerek explained calmly.

Aaron looked dumbfounded, "But what about your legendary abilities? To slay entire armies?" Raerek chuckled a little in reply, "Indeed we are strong, but that legendary strength lies in our abilities. And I can't afford to use mine in here. It would be more of a hindrance than a help."

Aaron looked crushed as Raerek de Lionei, the _legendary warrior_, told him that the situation was hopeless.

"Of course, that's fighting all of them by myself. We only have to fight two of them and I have four allies." Raerek finished with a smirk before jumping down into a Void Crash, announcing his presence in the arena _'Athena, lead my steel to rend flesh.'_ Was his prayer while falling.

Aaron smiled a little as he jumped down after Raerek, _'Thanks…'_ he mentally thanked the warrior before jumping down himself, ready to face the enemies around him while the swordsman jumped down to assist and the archer stayed up to snipe at any foes he could.

Raerek immediately charged at the paladin, engaging him in close combat and leaving the other four to deal with the dagger wielding psychopath.

Raerek swung his sword in a huge arc as he charged the golden armored knight, expecting him to duck. However, the man blocked with his own sword, using the momentum of Raerek's swing to drive his sword into the ground, wedging it there.

Raerek was forced to let go of his sword in order to avoid decapitation, but quickly charged the paladin, avoiding the slow swings from the man's huge sword, and punched the blond in his uncovered face, knocking him back with a bloody mouth and probably a broken nose.

Not wasting a second, Raerek ran back to his sword and broke the floor around the sword because he picked it up with so much force, hefting the large blade over his shoulder with one hand and waited for his opponent to get up.

The man scowled at Raerek before charging him, eyes alight with cold fury as he drew his sword. "Why do you assist that traitor?" he hissed at Raerek as he went for a jab which was deflected upward by Raerek, but the follow up slash was dodged.

Raerek appeared to think about the question for a moment before relenting, "Why not?" he shrugged after blocking another lethal strike from the man.

"I can give you a hundred reasons why not!" the man roared as he once again flung himself upon his ready opponent, "He's the one leading this invasion, for the first!" Raerek's eyes narrowed at this.

"Well, two problems with that, the person over there was unconscious when the invasion started, and I already have a guess as to who's behind this invasion." Raerek frowned as he deflected another strike from the man, countering fluidly but to no avail as the attack was dodged.

The man's eyes widened before they narrowed and he took up a strange stance with his sword. It looked almost as if he was prepared to stab it into his heart.

Raerek realized too late what was about to happen, and thus couldn't prevent the massive release of magical power that followed.

Where a knight in golden armor once stood was a storm of lightning, all extending out from where the paladin had been stationed.

"**You don't look surprised. Do you already know of the guardian's heart-bond?"** a powerful voice asked from within the cloud, echoing many times before the voice's question was finished.

"Indeed I do, Sir Siegfried. I recognized that stance too late, I didn't know that you had even achieved it yet. It really has been too long since we last sparred, hasn't it…old friend." Raerek finished as he assumed a neutral stance, his sword held at a slight angle in front of him and his feet shoulder width apart.

"**Yes, it has."** The voice replied calmly as the vortex subsided, revealing what appeared to be a human form, but made entirely of white and purple energy with glowing yellow eyes and bolts of electricity for flowing hair. The creature was clothed in chest guards and a loincloth made of electricity, along with boots. It wielded a large, jagged longsword in the shape of a lightning bolt.

Raerek barely had time to blink before the creature was upon him, slashing and hacking in a most violent way.

"You've improved." Raerek stated, obviously impressed by his expression. "Let's step it up." And with that, magical energy surrounded him before entering him through his eyes, nose and mouth. When the magical energy had finished going inside Raerek, his sword began to glow slightly.

"Haste, Shell, Protect, Veil." Raerek said confidently as he felt the protective magic enter into his system.

"You've been practicing a lot more in magics, I see." Siegfried said almost whimsically as he began to levitate a small amount off of the ground, "That'll just make it that more interesting." And with that, the battle began anew, their blades clashing at a much quicker pace than before, but still matched nearly blow for blow.

R- - -L

When Raerek had gone to fight the paladin, Aaron had immediately launched bullets of ice magic at the unknown knight, who easily avoided them.

However, this gave Arianne enough time to get out of direct combat and make it back to her allies.

"Aaron!" Arianne's voice cracked slightly as she hugged the life out of the spear wielding guard.

"Arianne…" Aaron said softly as he held her close, keeping her buried deep into his chest. Normally she would be opposed to this kind of treatment unless she was drunk, but this was a special occasion.

"Ahem." The two broke apart to see the masked knight standing with his daggers sheathed and tapping his foot, waiting for the two to finish, "Can we get on with the fight?" his voice came out in a slow, bored drawl.

His response was Aaron and the swordsman drawing their weapons and Arianne backing up a fair amount and summoning her bow.

"Bring it!" Aaron shouted as he charged the leather clad knight, but that proved to be a mistake as the man quickly maneuvered himself inside of Aaron's guard and would have killed him had and arrow from the soldier archer not almost taken the man's head.

With a quick nod of gratitude, Aaron proceeded more cautiously this time around.

He experimentally formed a large ball of ice and launched it at his opponent, only for it to melt when it got within a foot of the man.

'_Fire magic. Probably Soldier level at least.'_ This made Aaron sweat a little bit, his main advantage was usually his magic. If this person were able to counter his magic, then he'd be in trouble.

Aaron didn't have time to think any more as the masked man came charging at him, daggers brought to bear.

Aaron dodged the first dagger by moving to the right but would have been cut with the second one if the swordsman hadn't jumped in and attacked the psycho.

With a quick nod of thanks, Aaron immediately jumped into the fray, swinging his spear skillfully at his opponent, who could do nothing more than dodge.

'_This should be harder…'_ Aaron thought as he once kept his opponent on the defensive with the help of the archer and the swordsman, before managing to land a small gash in the masked man's armor.

That appeared to finally get the man's attention, shown by the flames on his daggers practically exploding before the man charged at Aaron, swinging his blades violently.

Aaron didn't even have time to dodge fully as both of the blades pierced through his side, one above the next.

Shock was filling Aaron's mind to the brim as he fell to the ground, the world fading to black around him.

He tried to get up, but his limbs felt so heavy…

So heavy…

'_I'm sorry, Arianne…'_

"NOOOOOOOOO!"

R- - -L

Arianne's mind numbed as she saw Aaron fall to the floor, the cauterized wound making a gaping hole in his side.

Her first action was denial, _'C'mon Aaron, stop it with the magic and get up and kill him already!'_

The second was disbelief, _'Aaron? Aaron? No, you're not dead! YOU CAN'T BE DEAD!'_

The final stage was anger and sorrow, mixed together into an emotional mixture to break even the strongest of wills.

"NOOOOOOOO! AARON!" Arianne's scream broke the recent silence as her mind slowed, eyes sharpened.

Arianne formed her arrow of light from nothingness, gripping it so tightly that her hands began to hurt, but she didn't care.

She had one goal.

The masked man must die.

With that goal set firmly in her head, she exploded toward the murderer with surprising speed, snapping him out of the shock of how much magical energy she was exuding.

Arianne didn't give him a chance to block, her first move stabbing him through his stomach and blowing him off of it with a magical burst.

"Die! DIE!" Arianne screamed at him. She knew her eyes were flowing with tears, that her visage was disheveled and broken, but she didn't let up. She kept on fighting the man, stabbing him so quickly that he didn't have time to recover.

Arianne soon realized that she didn't even have control over her own body anymore, but she didn't care, she let herself flow with the wave of magic sweeping over her, her tear filled eyes closing slowly.

All of a sudden, though, Arianne was shaken awake by falling onto a cold, hard floor.

"Ow…" she quietly complained to herself as she stood up and observed where she was.

There was a white marble tile floor, with no walls or ceiling, just white extending as far as she could see. When she looked down at herself, she realized that, she too, was purely white, her outline being defined with black lines.

"So, this is how the afterlife treats its guests." She said to herself bitterly as she scowled at the floor.

"Not quite, my champion." A voice came from behind her.

She turned around, but could still see nothing, nothing but the impenetrable whiteness that was there before.

"Lord Apollo?" Arianne questioned as she spun around in circles, trying to find her patron god.

"You are here, because you are not within yourself. Losing oneself to battle-lust will do that to a person. So, while you are here and I am there, you are not out there, but in here. Therefore, I must be out there." Apollo's voice echoed again, seeming amused at the prospect that he could so easily confuse his warrior.

"If I'm not out there, is there the real world? And where is here?" Arianne questioned, still spinning around hopelessly.

"But you're still out there, just not _really_ out there." Apollo chuckled to himself, "I can see why Hermes enjoys doing this so much."

"What does Hermes have to do with this?" Arianne shouted, even more confused than before.

"Twas a nice chat, girl, but be warned," Apollo's voice turned serious, "this time you were saved, I know not how or why, but remember."

"To lose control, is to lose yourself. That is the true curse of the twelve…" Apollo's voice faded out, leaving Arianne confused and distraught before a bright light flashed before her vision, returning her to the real world.

Arianne wobbled on her feet, swaying back and forth before looking around at her surroundings.

Aaron had been taken by the swordsman, who was now wrapping his cleaner looking wounds. The bowman still remained in place, although his posture indicated a huge amount of shock.

Even though the giant man and the golden-armored bowman were still fighting off the monsters, rather effectively actually, and Raerek had stopped his fight the Lightning …Atronach…thing… to watch her fight with a small amused smile on his face.

Then she spotted her opponent, and almost gasped.

He was covered in non-lethal puncture wounds, all of them bleeding freely, but was somehow still managing to stand.

What did make her gasp, though, was when he took out a yellow potion from a pocket on his pants and downed it in a single gulp, his wounds immediately began to steam and scab over, and his skin regained its color, he stood up straighter and stronger.

It wasn't long before the new scabs fell off, revealing newly healed pink skin, and the man looked ready to fight once again.

"No way…" Arianne heard the swordsman whisper, horrified, and she couldn't help but agree with him.

She grimly grabbed her back and reached back to her quiver when, out of nowhere, the Lightning Atronach flew backwards at high speeds into the masked man and they both went flying into a nearby wall, making a large hole.

Everyone looked back to Raerek, who had his sword over his shoulder in a baseball post-swing position. He shrugged, "What, at least I gave us some breathing room." Before walking out of the hole after his opponent.

Arianne didn't complain as she fished out a Level I potion from Aaron's pack and grimaced, _'Well, at least it's better than nothing.'_ She thought to herself before pouring the magical liquid down Aaron's throat.

After making sure that Aaron was secure, Arianne was about to go after Raerek when an arrow imbedded itself in front of her, making her look up to find the golden-armored archer.

She grimly realized that he had finished off the majority of the recent wave and was leaving the rest to the giant, who was doing quite well.

She notched her bow as she felt the swordsman hop up beside her and the archer jump down to get a better shot.

She smiled grimly as she grabbed her remaining arrows and grimaced.

'_I've got to end this quickly.'_ She thought as the swordsman charged forward, alone, while she and the other archer took shots at the man in golden armor from a distance.

"Why did this have to go so wrong?" Arianne muttered to herself, earning a look of sympathy from her fellow archer.

R- - -L

Raerek smiled as he stepped out of the hole he created to find his opponents already prepared and waiting for him.

"Good, you're not so weak that a simple wall could stop you." He smirked at them amusedly as the prepared to double team him, before sobering up when the strider formed runes of fire in the air before vanishing from sight and the Atronach charging up for a powerful bolt of magic.

"Such a simple tactic won't work against me." Raerek said boredly as he clotheslined the masked strider, canceling his invisibility, and charged toward the Atronach, making it stop its spell to dodge.

"Why do you fight us?" the now-visible masked man asked Raerek as they readied their weapons again, before shooting off.

Raerek frowned as he heard the hidden plea behind the question and shook his head while engaging in swordplay with the strider, "No, Archianenio. I cannot return to the service of a king, nor will I put down my arms when you fight in a battle with my charge."

Archianenio seemed surprised at that declaration, as did Siegfried, enough for him to stumble in his assault and give Raerek enough room to push both of them back enough to give him some breathing room.

"You're charge?" Siegfried asked, stupefied, "How the _hell_ did that happen?" he questioned, Archianenio nodding in agreement as they once again engaged each other in close quarters combat.

"Is it really _that_ much of a surprise?" Raerek asked, thoroughly annoyed as he blocked a strike from Siegfried with his sword before jumping up and donkey kicking Archianenio away before pushing away the Atronach and summoning magical energies to surround him again.

"Bravery, Faith, Renew." Were the magical words uttered from his lips this time as he prepared to, once again, throw off his attackers.

"Got'cha now!" Siegfried yelled as he appeared in front of Raerek, glowing with magical energy.

"Now quite." Raerek laughed a little bit as he blocked the Atronach with two hands on his sword, one to block magic and the other to hold the sword, but Raerek was taken off guard when the creature smirked before his eyes widened.

"Sorry." Archianenio muttered in his usual monotonous voice as he pulled his daggers out from Raerek's back, letting him fall to the ground.

"Let's go and finish up inside." Siegfried said as he began to walk away, but was stopped when he was again bashed in the head with a giant sword and sent flying sideways, farther away from the castle.

"Wha-" was all Archianenio got out before Raerek grabbed him by his skull and ran up the castle wall before smashing the strider's head into it to stop.

Raerek paused for a moment to make sure that both were well and truly out cold before sighing.

'_I've got to stop doing that.'_ Raerek frowned to himself, _'It has been too long since I faced an opponent who could truly harm me in combat.'_

Raerek walked over and picked up the two bodies and started walking back inside, but something caught his eye.

Looking closely at the garden, he could see a hulking shape inside the garden, trying to get inside the hallway before an explosion rocked the world.

Raerek narrowed his eyes through the smoke to try and define the figure of what the creature was before his eyes widened _'Troll!'_

He quickly ran back inside to warn the others, hopefully in time to get some back up.

R- - -L

Arianne's first attack was a salve of arrows that was, hopefully, too widespread for the archer to dodge, but it was a futile hope.

That didn't mean she wasn't disappointed when he grabbed one of the dead wargar and hid behind it.

'_I just have to buy enough time for those two to get over there.'_ And Aaron, who had leapt into the fray as soon as he had regained consciousness, and the swordsman were already stealthily making their way to where the king's archer stood.

"Dammit!" she cursed to herself when the archer saw the two combatants sneaking up on him and quickly moved to another location before launching a large volley of arrows at them, which they luckily dodged.

'_This is getting us nowhere fast!'_ Arianne despaired silently as she once again tried to distract the archer. Unfortunately, he was wise to their strategy now and wasn't about to be caught unawares twice.

Fate seemed to smile upon the small group at that moment, though, as their opponent had forgotten about the second archer in their group, who was hiding on the opposite side of the room, and hadn't been quick enough to avoid the arrow now deep into his calf.

This injury may not have been a largely debilitating one, but it was enough for Aaron to catch up to the man and engage him in close combat.

"Whew…" Arianne sighed, wiping some sweat off of her brow, resting easy. She was already coming up with plans to deal with the giant guard when something caught her eye that made her gawk in disbelief.

The archer had managed to avoid Aaron's strikes and knock away his spear, and the two were now grappling with each other, trying to overpower the other, while the swordsman stood surrounded by a small group of monsters that the giant had allowed to slip by for assistance to his teammate.

Arianne readied her bow again after catching the eye of the other archer and preparing to assist the swordsman so that he can help Aaron subdue the archer.

As she quickly counted the number of monsters; four wargar, two goblins and a harpy, she grew more worried when she counted only twelve arrows left in her quiver, not nearly enough to subdue the monsters, the archer and the giant man.

"Oh well," Arianne muttered to herself as she readied three arrows to take out the goblins and harpy, "not like I was expecting it to be easy." She glared at the creatures as she shot them, watching her arrows pierce their heads before they could react.

Her fellow archer had done his job well, leaving only one wargar for the swordsman to deal with and Aaron with help soon on its way.

Feeling bold, Arianne ventured a glance over toward the main entrance to the room and immediately paled, now even more worried by what she had seen.

The giant axe-wielder was engaged against a dozen ground monsters of various races, but that wasn't what scared Arianne. It was that those appeared to be the last dozen of the hundred strong which came through those gates, and that the giant soldier was slowly but surely winning against the monsters.

That, in turn, meant that aid for the archer was getting closer and closer, and Arianne wasn't sure if they could beat the two of them together, even less so now that Raerek was occupied.

'_Damn, the one time that we need him around, he's gone!'_ Arianne silently fumed while turning her attention back to the battle at hand.

It appeared that, with the swordsman's assistance, even the injured Aaron had been able to physically overpower the archer and pin him down while the swordsman retrieved Aaron's spear.

As Arianne and the friendly archer moved from their hiding places to regroup with the rest of their group, Arianne kept a close eye on the giant and how he was faring. The man had already managed to whittle down the monster's numbers to only nine left, and that number seemed sure to drop soon.

As she looked at Aaron's pained face, she notched her bow with an arrow and pointed it at the enemy's face, motioning for Aaron to relax.

"You move and I'll put an arrow in your head." Arianne threatened as Aaron sat down on the ground to rest and gratefully took his spear from the swordsman.

Everyone turned when they heard a collective gasp though, and they saw the king and a dozen guards making their way through the back door back into the king's throne room.

The king was an old man, with a full head of grey hair that showed off his golden crown. He stood tall in his age though, and was intimidatingly regal in his wine-red robes.

"Who are you, fiends!" the king demanded as his guards all readied their weapons, "You shall release Michaeliavaili at once or I shall have you killed!"

All of them grimaced at this point, and looked about ready to give in when the giant, covered in blood, went to stand beside the king.

"Nnarixkavaar, could you go make those evil-doers unhand Michaeliavaili?" the king asked the giant, Nnarixkavaar, who then nodded and made his way to the ragtag group of, now renegade, soldiers.

"You let Michael go, an I no kill you. Kay?" the giant's deep voice echoed within their heads as they moved away from his downed comrade.

As the two started to move away and Arianne looked up to spit at them, something caught her eye, a glinting object behind the king.

Quickly, a plan formed in her head that might let her and Aaron get out of this situation alive, "Behind you!" she shouted and drew her bow.

That's where her plan stopped working however, as the two skilled guards thought she was talking to them and turned around to see her aiming her bow at the king with her last arrow notched.

Michaeliavaili, the archer, rushed at her and tackled her to the ground as she launched her arrow, making her miss her intended target of the king's would-be assassin and hit the king instead, piercing his heart and killing him instantly.

"Murderer!" Nnarixkavaar screamed in rage as he drew his weapon and charged the group and lead the way for the rest of the guards, leaving behind the king and an older teen, who was smiling widely and clutching a dagger in his hand.

R- - -L

**AN: Wheh! Almost done! So, as you can see, this is a pretty long chapter, over 8,000 words! But it gets better, this is NOT where it ends! Ya see, I had to divide this one chapter, Siege on the City, up into 3, I repeat, 3 parts! Each one close to 8,000 words long! THAT MEANS THAT THERE'S ONE MORE PART!**

**Holy crap, right? Anyway, that's why these updates have been taking so long. I've been writing the chapter and trying to end the saga, but the chapter will his like 15,000 words, so I just decide to split it. Anyway, onto the notes!**

**No, for those of you who recognize the name, this is not Siegfried from Soul Calibur. HOWEVER, this Siegfried is based on him and looks almost exactly like him. So, it's a character ****based**** on a real character. Yeah.**

**Just imagine Soul Calibur Siegfried's armor from Soul Calibur IV, but golden colored.**

**Now, onto reviews.**

**Carefree Luminary: Thanks for reviewing! And sort of. Not so much a mass cross-over as it is "borrowing" ideas from different fantasy games and putting them all into one story. But it does have some big crossovers, so points for that **

**Archsage12: Lol, s'okay. Happens to everyone every once and a while. About the category…**

**I DID YOU CRAYZEY WOMAN! T_T WHADDOYOU WANT FROM ME!**

**Okay, freak moment done *brushes off shoulders*. Anywho, about the past, I realized after I wrote it that I probably should have left out a little more, but, if you look closely, you'll find a lot of key things that I didn't include, plus one extra thing that you'll see next chapter. I hope you like what I did, cause it opens up a whole metaphorical can of worms! Sorry to disappoint for now, but their actual reunion won't be for a little while, until all the fighting has stopped. SORRY! But I'll make it good, I promise! ;)**

**Yeah! Got it in one *Nods head while Morgan Freeman talks in the background***

**Yay! I didn't really know how people would respond to that, so I just kinda went with it. I'm glad to see that at least one important person verbally likes it ;). **

**Thank you! The idea for the 12 actually just came to me while writing this, so I didn't know how good it'd be ^^'. Well, I have a little experience with mental guided arrows in video games, so I had an idea of what to write. And for Apollo, well, he **_**is**_** a god, and I didn't want to make his super-buff, cause he's the god of the music and shtuff, so I made him super tall instead ^_^.**

**Yay! I was hoping to get that right without making him like a little puppy ^^'. Yup, he's a total beast, in more ways than one *hint*hint*nudge*nudge*. Unfortunately, I had to put the **_**ass**_** back in badass to remind people of his fatal flaw *wink*wink*.**

**Thanks! The next chappie after this should be up at the beginning of December, heck, I might even be able to get it up right on the first!**

**POLL:**

**Okay people, seriously, vote. It might seem like I can drag this on forever, but I can't. Next chapter's the last one for sure, so vote! I can't go any farther with this story until I know what people want, and so far only one person's told me what they want!**

**Petra-1**

**Ammodis-0**

**Iiomeno-0**

**Remember, I need at least four votes for one category to move on. If I have a majority by Christmas, though, I'll just start with the majority.**

**Oh! A last minute warning to any soft-hearted readers! The next chapter will be a little gruesome, and I actually have had to censor one part so far, so proceed with caution and read any and all author's notes that you might see.**


	5. SotC: The Best Laid Plans

Chapter 5: Siege on the City, Part 3: The Best Laid Plans…

**AN: Hi guys! Sorry it took so long to get this up, it was a combination of me waiting for votes, wanting you guys to have something over Christmas, and me getting violently sick last weekend.**

**Anywho, enjoy this chapter especially, because it raps up the Durshten Arc and the first Fylloma Saga, so no more forests for a while, and also hints at some of Raerek's past, not to mention what Arianne didn't tell Raerek way back when. And what's up with the royal guard? Pay attention this chapter, cause a lot of this will come into play later.**

**Special shout out to ArchSage12: The scene that you've been waiting for is here! It's near the end though, but I tried to make it as mushy as possible, and then some. I hope you like what I did at the end ;)**

**Disclaimer: I only own the OCs, plotline, setting, etc. Except for Aaron and Arianne, who were submitted by ArchSage12.**

- - -Durshten: Castle District-Outer Gardens

Raerek ran back into the room just in time to hear a familiar deep voice scream about murder.

Given what he already knew and what he suspected, it didn't take long for him to figure out that one of his group had accidentally killed the king, probably Arianne, and that Nnarixkavaar was pretty pissed about it.

Of course, seeing the half-ogre charging at a bug-eyed Arianne and the king dead on the floor with an arrow in him probably helped. A little.

Raerek took only a split second to decide what he was going to do, and another to drop the unconscious bodies and charge at the raging giant of a man.

"Nnarixkavaar! Enough!" Raerek shouted loudly at the giant, getting his attention.

"Now, what are you doing!" Raerek yelled at the huge man while crossing his arms, appearing to be almost scolding him.

This had the effect of the large man sobering up and plopping down on the floor and starting to play with his hands without meeting Raerek's eyes.

"But Lord Ra'rek, dey-" the giant man started quickly but a stern look from Raerek silenced him.

"No buts! Now, why would you charge at your fellow guards?" Raerek began tapping his foot impatiently as Michaeliavaili shook his head at the ridiculousness of the current situation, while the guards just stood there, very, _very_ confused.

"Why are you idiots just standing there! That boy murdered the king!" Michaeliavaili shouted while pointing towards Arianne.

That shook the guards out of their confusion but a sudden earthquake stopped them from going anywhere.

"Oh yeah," Raerek said to all of the fighters there, "I probably should have said this sooner, but there's a Troll on the way here. Probably a king too."

Michaeliavaili scoffed at him after he regained his balance, "Really now? And you're not just trying to distract us so that you and your group can escape? Besides, I thought Trolls only dwelled in Gaea." The guards and even Nnarixkavaar seemed to agree with him, but all arguments were silenced when another explosion occurred and the room of the room began to crumble.

"Everyone out!" Aaron shouted at the top of his lungs as he, Arianne, the archer and the swordsman ran for the hole that Raerek had made, Raerek following close behind.

"You heard 'em. Move!" Michaeliavaili shouted at the guards, who had been frozen in fear from the ominous rumblings, as he sprinted toward the same exit as the rouges.

"C'mon." Nnarixkavaar said as he ran and picked up the king's body and yelled at the teen, "King son must live!" he then began to run toward the exit, being the last one to head for it.

"Hurry up!" Michaeliavaili yelled from the outside to Nnarixkavaar as the ceiling began to fall down, "You can make it!"

Despite being enemies at the moment, Aaron, Arianne and the group couldn't help cheering him on with the guards.

"Come on! It's coming down! Get back!" Arianne shouted at the top of her lungs as everyone ran from the collapsing room and into the outer fields.

Raerek was the first to recover from such a violent shaking of the earth when the room collapsed. He quickly stood up and tried to navigate through the thrown up dust to find his companions.

"Arianne! Boy! Where are you!" he called out before covering his mouth as he began coughing violently from the dust.

"Raerek!" he heard Aaron's voice shout as the dust began to thin out slightly, "Over here! We're all over here!"

Raerek began trudging in the general direction of the voice but tripped over something. Feeling around on the ground, Raerek felt that it was a body, bleeding and probably dead, with a piece of wall stuck through its back.

After reciting a quick prayer for the dead, Raerek resumed his travel to the voice on his hands and knees, _**"Good, Raerek. I see you remember what I have instructed you about situations such as these."**_ Raerek frowned at the voice in his head.

"_It has been a long time, Athena. Why would you choose to contact me now, of all times?" _Raerek questioned his patron goddess, eliciting a laugh from her inside his head. _**"Why not? After all, it has been so long since you've truly used my gift, I'm beginning to think that you've forgotten about my power. Even your prayers are much less frequent and devout."**_ Raerek could hear the annoyance and disappointment in her voice.

"_I'm sorry. I'll try to do better."_ Raerek apologized half-heartedly. He knew that his goddess would never revoke him, but just wanted more devotion from him. _'Maybe later I'll try.'_ He thought to himself, shielding his mind from Athena.

"_**You'd better. And by the way, good luck."**_ Before Raerek could question the meaning of her threat and well wishing, the fog was blown away all at once, revealing a horrifying sight.

"I guess he didn't make it out in time then." Was Arianne's way of breaking the silence while staring at the pained and unconscious face of Nnarixkavaar.

He had apparently tried to jump out at the last second but hadn't made it, resulting in the lower half of his body being crushed under the falling rubble.

"Nnarixkavaar? Nnarixkavaar?" Michaeliavaili questioned the body, his eyes brimming with tears, "Nnarixkavaar? Can you hear me? Please! Tell me you can hear me!"

Raerek walked over to the distraught guardian and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, "He's just unconscious. Even with wounds that severe, a skilled enough mage should be able to heal him, if not simply a Level V Elixir." Raerek said calmly to the man.

Raerek wasn't quite sure why he chose to comfort the man, but it probably had to do with the fact that he could see the Troll advancing on their location, and they'd need everyone that they could find combat ready. Not even mentioning that three guards had died from rubble hitting them when they dived.

"Unfortunately, we can't worry about that now. We've got a Troll practically on us. Everyone! Ready yourselves!" Raerek shouted as the Troll crossed the last bit of ground separating opponents and swung its club at the group.

The Troll was a huge creature, almost 8 meters tall, and covered in large muscles. Its skin was a sickly green color, and it wore gauntlets, boots, a skirt, a poncho and a helmet. All of the metal on its body, the boots, gauntlets and helmet, were a dark grey color with orange and black cloth tied around them. Its skirt and poncho were black and orange striped, and the beast wielded a huge silver maul/club. (Troll King, White Knight Chronicles)

That was enough of a wakeup call for Michaeliavaili to dry his tears and begin commanding the guards, "Draw your blades! Today, we avenge our comrades by slaying this beast!"

This rallied the remaining guards as they drew their swords, the three archers had been the three soldiers killed by the rubble, and charged at the troll.

"Idiots." Aaron said, almost fondly, as he too charged the beast, his ally swordsman following behind as Arianne and the other two archers took arrows from the three dead archers and drew their bows while Raerek drew his blade and took a stance.

"Climb it!" Raerek shouted as he ran at the enormous creature, his blade ready and glowing with red magic.

"RRRHHHAAAGG!" was Raerek's cry as he slashed at the back of the Troll King's leg, making it roar in anger and futilely attempt to smash him with its maul.

"Start stabbing it! Make it bleed out!" Raerek shouted before the Troll King kicked him away and tried to shake off the four who had managed to grab ahold of it.

"I can see a hole in its armor!" Aaron yelled as he climbed up onto the back of the beast's neck, looking at its helmet, "I'm gonna-" Aaron didn't have a chance to finish as he was thrown off of the beast as it was pelted with arrows.

"Aaron!" Arianne screamed as she ran over to where he hit the ground and was nursing the unconscious boy's head.

"Damn." Raerek muttered to himself as two more guards that had managed to latch on were thrown off, one being impaled on a stone and dying while the other hit his head and was knocked out like Aaron.

"Isn't there any way to kill this thing quickly?" Raerek asked himself. An image of a giant suit of armor appeared in his head, but he quickly shook his head to get rid of that image. "Maybe if I try that magi swordsman combo, that should work. Yeah…" Raerek psyched himself up for what he was about to do as he saw another guard get thrown off of the monster as two more ran up to take his place.

"Clear the way!" Raerek shouted as he held up his sword and began charging large amounts of magical energy for what he was about to do.

"Devastator!" Raerek shouted as his eyes began to glow white and he ran toward the hulking beast, which had just turned to face him.

Raerek swung his sword wide and cut _through_ the creature's armor, but that was just the beginning.

Following the first slash, he followed with two slashes before spinning into a five slash combo. After that, swung his sword up the Troll King's leg and used that momentum to jump up to its chest, which he then slashed once and stabbed before pulling his sword free and going into a flaming, spinning slash that cut the Troll's chest twice before taking his sword and cutting straight down the Troll King's chest on his descent toward the ground.

"Success." Raerek panted out as he stumbled and used his sword as a crutch, but looked satisfied when the Troll King fell over with a roar.

"That was…incredible…" Aaron's group's swordsman said as the rest of the guards just stared on in amazement.

"Well-" whatever bragging Raerek was about to do was cut short by the roar of the Troll King as it stood up once more. Beaten, bleeding and hurt, but still standing.

"What the hell's it take to kill this thing!?" Michaeliavaili yelled at the sky, enraged.

"Maybe, it just takes a clean kill." Arianne's voice came from behind the king's archer, scaring the crud out of him.

"What do you mean?" Arianne's allied archer said as Michaeliavaili looked just as confused.

Arianne just held up her empty bow and charged her arrow of light, "Just catch my body please." Was all she said as she launched the arrow of light magic that she had generated and suddenly collapsed.

"It might be a magic arrow, but what's one arrow going to matter against such a foe?" Michaeliavaili asked rhetorically as Raerek 'shushed' him and watched the magic arrow intently, _'Is this your god's gift to you, Arianne?'_

The bowman gasped when the arrow pierced right through the Troll's helmet with practically no resistance, "Such a powerful arrow!" but nearly had a heart attack when the arrow suddenly turned around and went back through the Troll's heart, then back again through its neck and again through its lung before finally dissipating.

While the "normal" people were gawking at the immense power behind Arianne's arrow, Raerek had gone to the girl's body and picked it up, as the bowman had dropped it when he saw the arrow turn around.

He carried her over near Aaron's unconscious body and laid her down, head in his lap, waiting for her to wake up.

R- - -L

When Arianne woke up the first thing she saw was a face. Tan and chiseled with powerful features and eyes, his bangs swaying in the breeze before his face, it would have been enough to make any schoolgirl blush.

Arianne didn't blush though, she just frowned through her hood and glared at Raerek before looking over to see Aaron and visibly relaxing.

"You can let me go, now." She said, slightly annoyed.

Raerek didn't say anything to her; he just left, purposely avoiding her scathing eyes.

Arianne didn't pay too much attention to him though, and a worried look came over her face as she looked at Aaron.

"Oh Aaron," she sighed softly, brushing a stray bang out of his face, "why do you try so hard? Why do you push yourself so much for me? Maybe…" she placed her hand over her heart.

"No." she shook her head, solidly denying her actions and emotions. "It's too much to ask. Better that he never knows." Arianne smiled sadly as she held back her own tears.

"Arianne!" her swordsman friend called and she looked up at him, "Yes?"

"Raerek wants to have a sort of meeting. He wants you there and said that you should bring Aaron too." The swordsman said, gesturing to where Raerek and all of the other fighters had gathered near Nnarixkavaar's body.

"Tell him I'll be there soon." Arianne said softly as she took another longing look at Aaron before picking him up, bridal style, and walking over to the meeting.

"-'ll be back. I know it! I've dealt with these kinds of things before!" she heard Raerek shout before smashing his fist against a wall that was, miraculously, still standing.

"No! It's stupid, reckless and suicidal! We don't even have any idea what we'd be up against!" Arianne saw Michaeliavaili leaning on a table with Raerek's map of Durshten spread out over it, yelling at the frustrated swordsmage.

At the table were Raerek, Michaeliavaili and, surprisingly, Siegfried and Archianenio who were being assisted by some fellow guards.

"I've done stuff like this before! And we do know what we're up against! We've seen it!" Raerek seemed to get more frustrated by the second, his hand clenching and unclenching strong enough that she almost heard his, now blood-soaked, armor creak.

"Men," Siegfried intervened when he saw Michaeliavaili open his mouth for another retort, "are you really going to continue this petty squabble in the presence of a guest?" both of the warrior's arguments died in their throats when they turned and saw Arianne, looking a little awkward and holding Aaron's body as best as she could.

Michaeliavaili looked a little embarrassed at being called out by his squad mate, but Raerek strode over to her and held out his hands.

Arianne shot him a suspicious glance at first but handed him Aaron's unconscious body after a brief moment of contemplation.

"Get the healers over here!" Raerek shouted at a guard who happened to be walking by right then.

"Right away sir." The guard snapped into a salute and ran off immediately, making Arianne raise an eyebrow at the respect that he was being given.

"What's going on?" she questioned to the group, as they took their places once again.

"We're trying to decide how to proceed with the war." Archianenio's monotonous voice rang out into the small area, seeming to silence even the sounds of nature.

"I'm sorry," Arianne said sarcastically, almost angrily, "but when did this become a war?" she looked up, eyes filled with tears.

Wars struck too close to home. Her father, being a retired captain of the guard, had occasionally shared stories with her, about heroes of the Fylloma/Petra war. Even if it was a small-scale war, it was still that, a war.

She hadn't understood exactly what that meant until her mother was killed. _'A revenge assassination.'_ Arianne's eyes started to water even more, remembering what she had learned about the art of warfare.

The mere mention of war brought back these memories, memories which she tried to forget. Even when she had shared her life with Raerek, she had steered away from the topic of war, of her father. She had tried to forget.

"Arianne?" a soothing male voice brought her out of her stupor, and she immediately glomped the, now conscious, Aaron.

"Aaron! How're you awake? You were out cold!" she nearly cried tears of joy when she saw her best, practically only, friend completely healed.

"These guys sent for backup after the Troll went down, and here come a bunch of mages from the guard's barracks. They had healers with them, so they patched me up and BAM! Good as new!" he laughed at the end.

"Umm, excuse me Aaron," Michaeliavaili started, "but don't you mean Brad?" that made the pair freeze in place.

'_They don't know!'_ Arianne mentally screamed to herself as she tried to give out an excuse, "Well, ya see-it's kinda-happened like-"

"PREPARE FOR BATTLE!" Raerek suddenly exclaimed, pointing to the hole where the Troll had come out.

"Why are you so worried?" Aaron questioned, obviously confused, "it's only three men."

Aaron's eyes widened considerably though, when he heard them start to chant in a foreign language while gathering in a triangle.

"Summoners!" Aaron exclaimed worriedly, standing up to get his lance, but immediately collapsing.

"You need to rest! Don't worry" Arianne flashed Aaron a small smile, "we'll kill those godless bastards before they know what hit 'em." She then grabbed her bow and ran to catch up with Michaeliavaili and Raerek, who had gone to get the guards and mages, while sending the healers to hurry up and unbury and heal Nnarixkavaar.

"Don't worry, kid, they'll be fine." Siegfried placed a comforting hand on Aaron's shoulder as the three incapacitated warriors sat down and watched the others run off to battle, "After all, they've got Sir Raerek with them, and I don't think I've ever seen the captain lose a fight against any mortal being." The paladin let out a hardy laugh as they sat and enjoyed a comfortable silence.

"Wait, what do you mean, captain?"

R- - -L

"Veni, O beastias inferni,

Et confringet vinculum sanctus alica,

Nos enim offerimus tibi animas, tuum optimus jucundum,

Si nos vobis venire in prælium!" **(1)**

"No! We're too late!" Michaeliavaili shouted as they neared the Summoners, only 100 meters away, "We're not going to be able to stop them in time!"

"Everyone, fall back!" Raerek yelled at all of the soldiers as he heard the last lines of the incantation, "Run away NOW!"

All of a sudden, the world grew unbearable hot at, in between the triangle of people, a black and red portal opened in the ground, seemingly made of lava.

That wasn't the horrifying part though, as a giant, boney white hand reached out of the gaping hole, the rotting white flesh falling off of the boney limb made it all the more terrifying.

Some people screamed, others collapsed, some even ran at the sight, knowing what was to come as a creature unlike any they had faced before rose out of the portal, hovering above the ground in all of its hellish glory.

**NOTE: The following description contains graphic content which may be offensive or disturbing to some readers. If you proceed to read description, you forfeit you right to complain about any content that may be disturbing or offensive. By reading the following description, you verify that A) You are certain that reading disturbing material will not offend you in any way, and B) You are willing to give up your right to complain about said graphic content within this section. If you do skip this section, there will be a link to a slightly more mild picture on my profile. If you wish to skip this section for any reason, there will be another note at the end. Thank you.**

With its pale, almost paper white skin, it looked almost like a skeleton with flesh. Not a human skeleton though, the creature was nearly 10 meters tall, and covered in bony spines on its shoulders and forearms. But upon its head were the largest, with two huge horns on either side of its head, each the size of a young man, and with more spines protruding from those horns, getting larger and larger closer to the head.

The head seemed like a human skull at first glance, but the being had no visible eyes, just gaping holes with small streams of blood leaking from them, and a large scar down the center of its cranium, all the way down to its broken nose and putrid yellow teeth. The blood from the thing's eyes dripped down to its skull and down its throat to its chest.

The chest was disproportioned, with the stomach being small and thin, but the actual chest being large and gorged, almost looking swollen. That wasn't the worst though, as the chest appeared to be brutally ripped open, flowing freely with blood spewing from its clearly visible and still beating heart.

Linking the torso and the arms were shoulders which seemed like they had been artificially made with how many cuts were on them. The brutal looking bone spikes almost looked like they had been forcibly implanted into the creature. Along with the spikes the creature had small wings of pale white bone with a bloody membrane that acted as a sort of cloak to complete the fairytale look. However, this being's shoulders were completely natural, only adding to the horror of the group.

Its arms were still an evil white, but they had been sporadically stained crimson with the blood flowing from its chest and eyes. Its arms were thin and seemingly weak, but the visible tendons showed the hidden strength of the monstrosity, with its forearms bearing more of the jagged spikes that shown on its shoulders. On the right forearm's fleshy underside was a brutal, open cut, leaking blood all over the beast's hand and long, thin, skeletal fingers, leading down to evil looking curved claws, staining them a disturbing, bloody red.

But, just beneath the creature's arms, were extra appendages. Connected at the area where a human's floating ribs would be on the torso, were two whip-like limbs. They were untouched by the creature's own blood, but one could see the crust from its victims' dried blood on the spear-like tips that ended the strange additions.

Looking down beneath its skeletal hips, one could see the thin white legs of the beast and wonder how such weak-looking limbs could hold up such a massive beast. And it would be a valid question, given the bloody scars around the upper thighs on both legs, and the hoof-like feet of the beast, that completed its demonic look. **(Hunted: The Demon's Forge, Demon: Archgoul)**

But all of those together couldn't match up to the horrible sounds that the beast was making. It threw back its head and wailed, a horrible, screeching sound.

The remaining fighters almost looked sorry for the beast until they truly heard the screams. They were not screams of pain, as the men had originally thought, but squeals of joy.

When the demon turned to look at them, several of the warriors had to look away because of the sheer level of disgust that they felt when looking at the monstrosity.

They thing was smiling, and taking untold amounts of glee within its own suffering.

**NOTE: Okay, the gross part's over. I'll work to get a modified picture on my profile as soon as I can, so don't worry. Enjoy the rest of the story!**

When all of the remaining dozen fighters had returned, they all steeled themselves for combat.

"Hmph, cowards." Raerek snorted in the direction that twenty-eight of the original forty soldiers had fled.

"Dodge!" he heard Michaeliavaili yell as the demon began to float slightly off of the ground and glow with red energy.

They were surprised when it didn't attack though, but all jumped when the red energy shot out and impaled the mages that had summoned the demon, before completely encasing them within itself, forming a transparent cocoon of energy..

"What's going on?" Michaeliavaili questioned as he saw the cocoons start to float and circle around the demon.

"An Archgoul…" Raerek looked on in apparent wonder and seemed to be hesitating for a moment.

"A what?" Arianne questioned him again, but he ignored the questions in favor of explaining what it was doing.

"It's generating its impenetrable magic shield, the Blood Magic Shield." Raerek drawled on seemingly lost in thought.

"That's impossible! Everything has a weakness!" Arianne exclaimed as they watched the demon throw back its head and laugh maniacally again.

"This doesn't." Raerek looked at her grimly, "There are legends of people who managed to kill these creatures, the Archgouls, but they were either killed before they could pass on the knowledge of how, or became masters of the Archgouls instead. Within the past 300 years, anyone who has seen one of these has either been killed or unable to even hurt it."

"Maybe Arianne's arrow-" Michaeliavaili started but Raerek shook his head when a screech halted their conversation.

"It's coming." Raerek warned ominously before the Archgoul stuck its whips into the ground and pulled out a total of four skeletons.

The skeletons quickly drew their own swords out of the dark magic used to reanimate them, and at once launched themselves at the group.

The skeletons were quickly dispatched with the combined efforts of all twelve soldiers, but that's when things went horribly wrong.

The Archgoul had been charging up magic in its hands while they had been fighting the skeletons, and released the ball of super-magic in the group, and the results were devastating.

Arianne was the only one to get away from the ensuing explosion relatively unharmed, with only singed hair and small burns on her exposed skin.

When she looked back over at her comrades, she nearly lost her cool.

Where there once stood eleven other strong men, there were now four live men, and only two were standing.

Raerek may have been standing, but he certainly wasn't in good shape. His armor was cracked and burned, and there was blood leaking from cuts on his head and from underneath his armor, and his eyes were also bleeding from the intensity of the light. Other than those injuries, all he had were some burns over his face, but he looked angry and ready to fight.

Michaeliavaili had managed to avoid most of the blast, but he was still thrown by the blast and his arms were cut up horribly by stones that had been thrown from the impact, but he was otherwise okay, having gotten far enough that the burns on his body weren't very severe. He was on the ground, struggling to get up.

Aaron's archer friend had also been relatively fine, and was the other one standing. He had been smart enough to hide behind a nearby rock the moment he saw the magic bolt come towards the group. He was covered in bleeding and cracked burns due to his proximity to the heat and his lack of heavy armor, but other than that he was fine, save for the pain that his injuries put him in. He was in the best shape out of everyone, save Arianne.

The worst of the live ones was Aaron's swordsman friend. He had tried to dodge, but hadn't had the foresight or experience of the others there, and had ended up moving too little too late. His right arm was blown off at the elbow, his heavy armor not helping in the least because of how close to the blast he was, his chest armor was melted to his skin, and his left arm and leg were bent at completely unnatural angles. His eyes had been all but destroyed from the intensity of the light resulting from the magical explosion, and his ears and nose were in equal predicaments resulting from their respective senses overloading.

Arianne's attention wasn't on any of her teammates, though, as cruel as it may have seemed.

No, her attention was on the Archgoul, an expression of horror plastered on her face, as she saw the light of another destructive ball of energy, almost complete.

"Arianne…" she heard Raerek call to her softly as silence roamed over the battlefield, "Destroy the cocoons, that'll lower the shield."

She didn't ask him how he knew that, or how he knew it would work, but she just readied her bow, reaching into her recently refilled quiver.

Arianne drew three arrows, and prayed like she had never prayed before.

R- - -L

Raerek had known that there would be pain the moment he saw the Archgoul raise its hands.

He had prepared for it.

Except… nothing could have prepared him for the searing pain that came from the magical blast.

It felt like he was being burned and chilled at the same time, but being stretched to the limits of his being, his skin tearing even though it would not break, and his body becoming as brittle at aged glass.

Raerek gasped for air that wouldn't come to him as he struggled to remain standing. He could already feel his body starting to heal from the blast, albeit slowly, but it was recovering.

He knew he was lucky. He wanted to believe that he would be the worst of the injured, but he wasn't. That was proven when he looked over at the dead bodies strewn about the field, and Aaron's friend, the swordsman, lying pitifully in a puddle of his own blood.

"_**Hmmm. It appears that my well-wishings did little to help you and you pitiful group of soldiers."**_ Raerek growled at the mocking tone of the voice in his head.

"_What would you have me do? This being cannot be injured!"_ Raerek would have scowled in his mind if he knew how.

"_**So you haven't noticed it."**_ Athena sounded amused, _**"Well, I suppose I can forgive you. After all, your skills must have dulled with all of your warless years."**_ Raerek frowned at the goddess's obvious jab, but held his tongue.

"_Lady Athena,"_ He began in his head when he saw the Archgoul begin to charge up another blast of magical energy, _"what must I do to slay this creature?"_ he all but pleaded.

"_**Well, I suppose it would give off a bad image if my most powerful champion was felled by a beast such as this."**_ The goddess sighed, _**"Very well, I will tell you how to lower its shield, but you must finish it in MY name, with MY power. Is that understood?"**_ she questioned.

"_Yes,"_ Raerek said with a bitter taste on his lips, _"I swear it."_

"_**Good!"**_ Athena seemed considerably more pleasant now that she had gotten her way, _**"You must simply have that archer girl destroy the bodies fueling the shield. A single arrow should do."**_ She mused, _**"And don't forget to kill it in my name!"**_ she added on as her voice faded away, leaving Raerek dumbfounded.

He couldn't even comprehend how he had been so stupid. He'd thought that the bodies lye within the same protection that the shield offered the demon.

Before he started to rage too badly, he called out to Arianne, "Arianne…" he winced at how weak he sounded, "Destroy the cocoons, that'll lower the shield."

He saw he prepare her bow, and took a moment to observe her, in all of her blood soaked beauty, before preparing himself for what he had to do the moment the shield dropped.

"Hades," he prayed, his voice hollow, "have pity on my soul."

It seemed like slow motion as he watched each of Arianne's arrows pierce one of the three cocoons with ease, obliterating the bodies within.

The shield started to flicker, before it dissolved entirely. That was his cue.

"**O Leviathan,"** _'Oh Leviathan'_

Raerek closed his eyes as he began to chant, feeling the beginnings of ultimate potential welling up within himself, the soft, feminine voice speaking along with his powerful chant.

"**Dominator Antiquae Mária,"** _'Ruler of the Ancient Seas,'_

Raerek heard the sea roar within his ears, flooding out all other sound as a veritable ocean of blue magic swirled up around him, entirely enveloping his form.

"**Dona mihi vestra potestate,"**_ 'Grant me your power,'_

Raerek's voice was now just a disembodied power within the storm of blue magic, everyone staring at the vortex with mixtures of shock and awe as the magic reached out and began to heal those still alive.

Within the vortex, they could soon see a shape, Raerek, as he took out a diamond shaped gem, the details unable to be seen due to raging storm of magical energy.

"**Verto."** _'Transform!'_

Raerek felt the power all flood into his body he flung the gem up into the air before jumping up after it, the magic funneling after his body, before cutting the gem with his sword, thus releasing the seal upon it.

And all at once, he felt himself change. Where once, there was a man of flesh and blood, now stood a giant suit of armor, seeming to move of its own violation.

"RRRHHHAAGGGG!" the living armor screamed in Raerek's voice as it charged toward the demon, intent on ending its afterlife.

R- - -L

Arianne couldn't believe her eyes when she saw what came out of that swirling inferno of magic.

She had heard stories, of course, about that the special power of Raerek de Lionei wasn't just from a god, it was _of_ a god.

Any sensible person would immediately dismiss that as madness, the thought of a god giving a piece of its power to a mortal, but that was only what this _thing_ could be.

The power that it radiated was unreal, enough to even dwarf the Archgoul's, which had been crushing and completely overwhelmed them.

"Wow…" was all she could mutter, garnering nods from the rest of the survivors minus the swordsman, who had passed out after being partly healed by the magical aura radiated by the armor.

But it truly was a sight to behold. Its helm was a fiery, crimson red, and bore likeness to the head of a dragon, the glowing blue light shining out of its glaring eyes.

Its chest plate, however, was a dark blue color, like the night ocean, and had an aqua colored circular gem in the center of its chest, glowing with power. The entire chest plate was outlined with gold colored metal, giving the chest a nice contrast in its appearance. Beneath its chest plate was its armored stomach. It was rather plain compared to the rest of the armor, but it was an abnormally thin stomach that appeared to be made entirely out of dark grey metal plates with a the same light from its eyes shining out from the occasional crack.

The arms were only a slightly different color than the chest plate, being a nightly black that faded nicely into the dark blue. The arms were entirely that color, but the interesting design tended to make one forget the lack of color. The shoulder guard were relatively normal, but were outlined in gold and had golden designs on them. These led down into large, thick, plate armor covering the upper arms before merging into the elbow guards. The elbow guards, however, each had two large circles with spikes all over them, almost like bear traps, connected to the outside of the elbow guards in such a way that it looked like a partially open bear trap.

On the other end, starting at the waist, things got slightly more colorful. For a brief flash of white, the armored tassels hanging from the being's waist were triangular and mainly white in color, but with blue inner triangles and a small amount of gold in the center, almost like a belt buckle.

And beneath the tassels were the legs of the divine being, covered in three separate pieces of armor, the upper leg, the lower leg, and the feet. The upper leg was the same base color as the chest plate, but with ancient golden designs similar to those on the shoulder guards found running up and down it. The shin guards circled all the way around the leg, but were flatter and came to an edge on the sides of the legs, which was edged in gold, the shin guards themselves being the same dark blue color as most of the armor. The feet were the same simple dark blue and in the shape of regular armored boots, but were still outlined in a shiny golden color, giving it a regal look.

The creature stood at 7 meters tall and wielded what looked like a huge black sword, although the sword was quite long: about 4 meters. It also had a golden shield on its left hand, wielding its sword in its right, that was red in the center due to glowing red runes across the shield. **(White Knight Chronicles 2, Custom Knight: Larvayne Helm, Default Armor, Dinivas Gauntlets, Wizel Tassels, Elder Grieves, Elder Aegis, Dinivas's Longsword.)**

The group had taken that in all while the knightly armor was dueling with the magic wielding Archgoul.

Paying more attention to the fight, they began to notice that, while the knight was doing very well against the demon and appeared to be close to winning, the amount of magic that the Knight was putting out had gotten somewhat smaller. Not enough to be alarmed, but it was generating less magic than before.

Everyone having realized this were no longer content to sit and watch the battle take place, and now were paying close attention.

The Knight was trying to get in close to finish off the demon, having scored several hits already with its sword and leaving some deep wounds, but the Archgoul was managing to keep him at bay by shooting quick blasts of magic to keep him off balance.

Luckily, these quick blasts didn't have the same charge as the super-magic blasts that had been launched before, and didn't do nearly as much damage to the environment or the fighters.

"**GGRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" **the Archgoul screamed as the Divine Knight cut off its left arm at the elbow, the limb falling to the floor and dissolving into burning acid with a hiss.

"FOR THE GLORY OF ATHENA!" The knight yelled out before stabbing its blade through the thing's chest.

It then shoved it's blade in to the hilt before yanking it out violently, launching into a spinning slash the decapitated the abomination.**(2)**

The group of three observers were struck silent as they watched, almost in slow motion, the head of the beast fall the ground before dissolving in the same fashion as the arm.

Looking to the rest of the body, they saw it catch ablaze with pure, white flames, a horrified and painful scream seemingly originating out of nowhere.

In morbid fascination, all of them, even the knight, watched as the body slowly melted into a puddle of thick, silvery liquid, before the liquid evaporated into a black powder, which spread into the wind.

"Incredible…" Michaeliavaili's one word summed up the collective thoughts of all who had seen the spectacle, even those who had been stuck back at the 'camp'.

The knight then turned to them, making them all tense up and grab their weapons, but the Divine Knight did something that surprised them all.

Stabbing its sword into the ground, the knight knelt as if it were being knighted, before it shone with a bright light, its armor dissolving to reveal a humanoid shape.

Within moments the light cleared, revealing Raerek de Lionei, completely healed of all injuries, who proceeded to collapse on the ground, the knight's sword going through the same process to reveal Raerek's sword and a peculiar gem.

"Wonder what this is?" the archer questioned himself as he picked it up before dropping it with a yelp.

"What happened?" Arianne questioned him, Michaeliavaili looking on curiously. "It zapped me with some sort of magic!" the archer replied, "Made me lose control of my hand!"

Michaeliavaili then leaned over to inspect the gem while Arianne and the archer went to go collect the, still unconscious, swordsman, whose wounds had been miraculously sealed.

Unfortunately, this meant that there was no chance to reattach the soldier's lost limb, as the wound had scabbed over, preventing such an operation from taking place.

'Twas a gruesome sight, but Arianne placed the swordsman's remaining arm around her neck and started to carry him back to the camp, leaving the two other archers to get Raerek.

Michaeliavaili tore off a piece of his clothes and used it to pick up the gem before quickly depositing the gem within a pouch.

"Now, how're we gonna do this?" the archer said, scratching his head as he looked at the giant sword, before a metaphorical light bulb went off in his head.

"Got it!" the archer exclaimed as he tore a long strip of cloth off of the armor of one of the dead soldiers before using that tie the hilt of the blade to Raerek's hand.

"Now it should be light enough!" the archer said, satisfied with himself as he proceeded to pick up the sword and the attached arm, signaling Michaeliavaili to grab the other arm, before both of them headed back to the camp.

R- - -L **(Warning: This short section will be some of the mushiest stuff I've ever written. Bleh.)**

Arianne quickly found a healer and gave the swordsman to her before looking around the area, trying to find one mop of dirty blond hair.

The head of hair found her first though.

"Arianne!" Aaron exclaimed as he ran toward her, the setting sun highlighting his excited and expressive eyes.

As she turned, she almost got lost in those gorgeous purple eyes before taking off toward him, arms outstretched and prepared to embrace him with her loving arms, to bury herself deep into her chest and never leave, to look into his eyes and never look back.

As she neared him she smiled, a true smile, for the first time since her mother had died. She finally embraced her dream, her hope, her salvation, and snuggled deep into his chest as he encircled her with his strong arms.

And she almost broke, she nearly cried in anguish and grief for all that had happened since they had last been truly together.

The hydra, her exile, meeting Raerek, the wargar invasion, Apollo claiming her, the Troll King, the summoning, and, most of all, her near death, had made her realize how fragile her bonds were, how easily someone could be killed.

She had already known, of course, that her job would be dangerous, but to see so much death in such a short span of time, had obliterated any mental blocks that she might have had. Arianne's myriad of emotions forcing themselves through her being like a dam had broken, filling her up to the brim.

"Oh, Aaron…" she heard herself sniffle. In the past, she might have cringed at how weak and broken she sounded, but now? She couldn't care less.

"Shhh." He whispered into her ear, "It's all okay now, everyone's safe. And it's all thanks to you."

She looked up into his caring, compassionate eyes, and leaned into him, with him reciprocating the action.

As both of their eyes closed, their lips slightly parted, she could feel her soul welling up with joy at the thought of what was about to happen.

"Ahem."

The cough from beside them made them open their eyes and immediately jump away from each other, Aaron blushing so bad that his face could be mistaken for a tomato, and Arianne pulling her hood down to cover her equally red face.

"Actually," Archianenio started, completely oblivious or uncaring to what he had interrupted, "that giant knight was what had killed the demon, if I recall correctly."

Arianne then felt herself get angry. Angrier than she had ever been before. Angrier than Raerek knocking her out. Angrier than Aaron's apparent death(s). Angrier than the time Aaron had accidentally walked in on her in the shower.

'_Okay,'_ her remaining rational mind thought to herself, _'maybe not _that_ angry. But still!'_

Her rage was so intense that it had every male within twenty yards of her quivering in fear, the unconscious Raerek included, fearing for his life.

And, with a scream of righteous feminine fury, she launched herself at the stunned royal strider and, putting every ounce of fighting and magical energy into her right leg, kneed Archianenio as hard as she could.

In his groin.

Archianenio let loose a high pitched yelp and fell to the ground, clutching his nads, as every man who had seen what happened winced at the phantom pain and sent up a prayer for their brother to Zeus, that the man's crotch would eventually heal.

Arianne then stomped off in a huff while the remaining males gathered around to hear the pained words of a man who had probably lost everything.

Words that would garner pity from anyone who heard them.

"I think she crushed one of 'em."

R- - -L

"**You have done well, my champion. Slaying a beast that hadn't been slain in over three centuries. Impressive."** Came a powerful, disembodied, female voice within the same white area that Arianne had been in not too long ago.

"Athena, halt your games." Raerek growled as he slowly pushed his battered body off of the area's 'floor', "I'm in no mind for trickery."

"**Ahh, I see that even one use has already begun to advance you back to your original state of being."** The voice said, not even attempting to hide its amusement at Raerek's anger.

"You cursed witch! What are you doing to me for my soul to revert to such a primal state of being, which I hath made quick haste to rid from mine own mind!" Raerek shouted at nothing, waving his fist in rage.

However, the room quickly chilled when the words left his mouth, **"Forget this not, if thou wisheth to remain amongst thine living souls."** Athena's voice hissed as Raerek fell to the ground immediately, like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

"**Thine being was made above the beings of the mortal coil because I hath wished it! And when thou hast ceded his will and pride to mine own, thou hast given up thine gift of reckless abandon." **At this point Raerek was gasping for air. He was breathing, but it seemed almost like his lungs simply weren't working.

"**Thou wilst live by my command, and, if necessary, thou wilst die by my command. I hath given thee a larger cage than thine siblings, and made with less hardened iron, but the prison which within thine soul lies doth remain closed, and doth remain in my possession, 'till the end of ages, should mine will command it."** Raerek's eyes were beginning to droop, his sight fading to black as he started to suffocate.

"**Thou wouldst do best to remember that, whilst thee is a man above mortals, he is still but a man in the face of a god."** Raerek gasped as he could once again breathe, **"Now, begone!"**

And with that, Raerek was cast back into his own body, to awaken with a shivering breath.

R- - -L

**AN: Done! Once again, I'm sorry for the delay.**

**I hope you all enjoyed it! I tried to finish this up as soon as I could, but it still ended up over 8,000 words ^_^'**

**So, PLEASE R&R! I know that people read this (checking the traffic), so please review! And more importantly, VOTE!**

**I've decided that I won't be starting the next saga over Christmas break without votes. Why? Because way to much hectic stuff has been going on in my life as of last Tuesday. I'm sorry to all of my loyal fans out there, but until I get at least four votes in one category, I can't continue the storyline.**

**This doesn't mean that I won't, but the next chapters will come a lot quicker if I get some votes in.**

**Also, I'll try to get links posted on my profile to pictures of both the M-version of the Archgoul and the PG-version. I'll also try to get the knight, but don't count on him.**

**Thanks for reading so far!**

**NOTES**

**Okay, super bonus points for whoever can tell me what language that is and what it says. Seriously, you will make me so happy T_T**

**I you can guess where this move is from, I will be super impressed. If you manage to do this I'll probably send you a cookie. I'm not joking, just PM me where you want it delivered, and I will mail you a peanut butter cookie.**

**Reviews**

**ArchSage12: Haha, that's exactly what the exclamation mark made me think of too!**

**Yeah, that's because he figured out she was a girl. She didn't care, though, because no one knew that she was Brad Seatos AND Arianne Seatos, so she didn't really have anything to worry about.**

**Indeed *Sage nod***

**Well, tensions were running high and, as of this chapter, you've seen what so much tension can do to people.**

**Yeah, super complex names with a double meaning are my specialty ****. Seriously, you should see some of the other names I dream up for OCs. Fml.**

**Rayray. Lol. I've got an idea.**

**Yup, I kinda pictured him having one of those meme faces, ya know? The one with the straight line mouth and the tiny eyes? Yeah, that one.**

**Yup, although Aaron's getting picked on for a reason that will be made clear later. Probably about midway through the next saga. On a related note, Raerek's seemed really tense, hasn't he?**

**Yup, I wrote Aaron's false death scene and I'm like "Okay, what happens now?" and then it came to me. Arianne has to go ape-shit on the guy who killed Aaron. And with her arrow no less! And then I realized "Wait, I can tie this into the story. Jackpot!" lol.**

**Lol, you may not be that "craycray", but you sure as hell come close ;)**

**Honestly, you're the only really important person at this point. I mean, come on, Y U NO VOTE PPLE!? T_T**

**My thoughts exactly. FFVII. Love it.**

**Oh god… I pity you…**

**But yup, this image actually disturbed me a little bit when I wrote it, and then I remembered all of the stories that were taken down for stuff like this, so I decided that multiple warnings were necessary for responsible younger audiences.**

**Haha, I honestly really want Petra too, it would make things so much easier to create a new arc leading into the next saga.**

**Thanks for reviewing!**

**BTW, can't wait for the next chapter of your stories to come out, I'm on the edge of my seat ;D**

**POLL**

**Petra-1**

**Ammodis-0**

**Iiomeno-0**

**See you all later!**


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